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HISTORY 


OF  THE 


Hebrews'SecondCommonwealth 


WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  ITS 


LiteraturCj  Culture^  and  the  Origin  of  Rabbinism  and  Christianity, 


BY 


ISAAC  M.  WISE, 

President  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College. 


CINCINNATI : 
Bloch  &  Co.,  Publishers  and  Printees. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1880,  by 

ISAAC  M.  WISE, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


DS 


Contents. 


I.  The  Medo-Persian  Period,            ...  i 

Chapter  I.  — Restoration  of  the  Temple  and  Culte-Zerubabel,  1 

Chapter  II  —Restoration  of  the  Law — Ezra,               -            .  9 

Chapter  III.  —Restoration  of  the  State  — Nehemiah,        -  18 

Chapter  IV.-  Judea  under  the  Government  of  Highpriests,  28 

Chapter  V.  —Literature   and  Culture   of  the  Medo-Persian 

Period,              ----...  35 

II.  The  Grecian  Period,            -          .          -          .  43 

Chapter  VI. — Judea  under  European  Rulers— Alexander,    -  43 

Chapter  VII. — Palestine  under  Egyptian  Rulers— The  Ptol- 

emys,                -------  52 

Chapter  VIII. — Palestine  under  Syrian  Rulers  -The  Seleu- 

cides,          -..-..-  65 

Chapter  IX.  — Literature  and  Culture  of  the  Grecian  Period,  76 

III.  The  Revolutionary  Period,    -           -                     -  92 

Chapter  X.--Mattathia  Starts  the  Rebellion,                     -  92 

Chapfkr  Xr.  — Juda  Maccabee  Saves  the  Commonwealth,  95 

Chapter  XII. — Jonathan  and  Simon  Acliieve  Independence,  107 

Chapter  XTIL— Literature  and  Culture  at  Home  and  Abroad 

of  the  Revolutionary  Period,      -           -           -           -  119 

IV.  The  Period  of  Independence,          -          -          -  135 

Chapter  XIV. — The  Epoch  of  Popular  Government,       -  136 

Chapter  XV. — The  Epoch  of  Royal  Usurpation,         -           -  154 

Chapter  XVI  — The  Epoch  of  Pacification,           -           -  167 

Chapter  XVII. — The  Brothers'  Feud  and  Foreign  Interven- 
tion,     --...---  173 


CONTENTS. 

V.    Palestine  under  Roman  Vassal  King^s,          -  183 

Chapter  XVIII. — The  Last  of  the  Asmonean  Rulers,  -     184 

Chapter  XIX.— Herod  and  Hillel,              -           -           -  207 

Chapter  XX.  —The  Fruits  of  Despotism,         -           _  .     235 

VI     The  Rule  of  the  Procurators,    -          -          -  244 

Chapter  XXI. — The  Messianic  Commotion,    -           -  -     245 

Chapter  XXII — Agrippa  I.  and  hisTime,             -            -  269 

Chapter  XXIII.— MiUtary  Despotism  and  its  Effects,  -     288 

Vir.    The  Catastrophe, 317 

ChapterXXIV.— Preludes  to  the  War,            -           -  -     318 

Chapter  XXV.— The  First  Period  of  the  War.     -           -  330 

Chapter  XXVI. — The  Destruction  of  Jerusalem,        -  -     350 

Chapter  XXVII.— The  Inheritance,            ...  368 

Every  paragraph  being  headed  conspicuously,  the  reader  can  easily 
find  any  subject  discussed  in  this  volume. 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  contains  a  compact  narrative  of  Hebrew 
history  from  536  before  to  70  after  the  Christian  era,  divided 
into  Periods  and  Chapters  and  subdivided  into  Paragraphs, 
in  a  manner  which  decidedly  assists  the  memory  and  makes 
reading  easy  and  pleasant. 

This  period  of  Hebrew  history,  from  Zerubabel  to  the 
Fall  of  Jerusalem,  appears  to  me  to  be  the  most  interesting 
and  most  instructive  part  of  history.  It  contains  not  only 
a  political  history  of  an  advanced  civilization  in  contact 
with  Persia,  Egypt,  Syria,  Greece,  Rome  and  Parthia,  and 
yet  original  in  itself,  but  also  the  combat  of  Monotheism 
against  Polytheism,  and  its  tinal  results,  viz. :  Rabbinism 
and  Christianity.  Therefore,  this  volume  contains  the 
origin  of  almost  every  book  of  the  Bible  in  its  present  form, 
the  Apocr3'pha  of  the  Old  Testament,  their  Greek  transla- 
tions, and  the  first  writings  of  the  New  Testament  collec- 
tion, besides  the  extensive  notices  of  a  vast  Greco-Hebrew 
and  Aramaic-Hebrew  literature  ;  also  the  origin  and  work 
of  the  Great  Synod,  the  Sanhedrin,  civil  and  criminal  law, 
constitutional  provisions,  public  schools,  and  other  elements 
of  civilization,  and  the  biographical  outlines  of  the  princi- 
pal actors,  including  John  the  Baptist,  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
and  Paul  of  Tarsus.  This  volume,  I  think,  in  a  large  meas- 
ure accounts  for  the  origin  of  modern  civilization  and  its 
fundamental  ideas. 

This  part  of  Hebrew  history  has  been  written  by  Hum- 
phrey Prideaux,  Morris  J.  Raphall,  Henry  Hart  Milman 
(Enghsh),  I.  Salvador  (French),  I.  M.  Jost,  L.  Herzfeld, 
Heinrich  Ewald,  H.  Graetz  and  Abraham  Geiger  (German), 
all  of  whom  I  have  carefully  consulted  and  compared  with- 
out neglecting,  however,  at  any  point  to  consult  the  original 
authorities  which  guided  those  writers,  such  as  the  Bible, 
with  its  ancient  versions  and  commentaries,  Josephus, 
Philo,  Eusebius,  Clemens,  of  Alexandria,  Polyhistor,  He- 
rodotus, Xenophon  and  the  Latin  historians,  and  especially 
the  ancient  rabbinical   literature,    the    two   Talmuds,  the 


PREFACE. 

MUlvashim  or  homiletic  collections,  and  the  ancient  He- 
brew-rabbinical chronicles,  histories  and  historical  encyclo- 
pedias. I  have  carefully  examined  every  fact.  And  yet,  I 
believe  I  have  discovered  quite  a  number  of  points  over- 
looked by  my  predecessors,  whiCh  are  of  importance  to  a 
correct  understanding  of  history. 

This  book,  nevertheless,  claims  originality  in  the  logical 
arrangement  of  the  historical  material,  and  the  complete- 
ness thereof.  It  is  the  history  of  a  people,  and  not  of  rulers 
and  battles,  the  history  of  its  life  and  growth  in  politics, 
religion,  literature,  culture,  civilization,  commerce,  wealth 
and  influence  on  other  nations.  The  book  before  you  claims 
to  be  the  first  of  this  kind  written  from  a  democratic,  free 
and  purely  scientific  standpoint,  without  reference  to  politi- 
cal or  religious  preferences  and  considerations,  which  more 
or  less  governed  my  predecessors  ;  also  without  any  mj'sti- 
cism  or  supernaturalism  to  tincture  the  facts.  It  is  history 
without  miracles,  history  constructed  on  the  law  of  causal- 
ity, where  every  event  appears  as  the  natural  consequence 
of  its  preceding  ones.  It  claims  to  be  history  and  thefirst 
of  its  kind  in  this  particular  chapter  thereof.  It  is  written 
for  students  as  well  as  for  the  general  reader. 

In  1854  I  published  my  History  of  the  Israelitish  Nation, 
from  Abraham  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar. The  present  volume,  though  a  complete  book 
in  itself,  is  a  continuation  of  the  former.  It  begins  where 
the  first  closes.  It  is  written  in  the  same  spirit ;  history 
as  the  record  of  man's  transactions. 

The  Author. 
Cincinnati,  February,  1880. 


1.    The  Meclo-Persian  Period. 

From  536  to  332  b.  c,  Palestine  was  a  province  of  the  Medo-Persian 
Empire.  During  that  time,  the  Hebrews'  second  commonwealth 
was  established,  and  the  principle  elements  of  Judaism  were 
developed,  as  will  be  narrated  in  the  following  five  chapters : 


CHAPTER 


Restoration  of  tTie  Temple  and  Gulte- Zeruhabel. 


1.  The  Medo-Persian  Empire. 

Between  the  fifth  and  tenth  of  August,  in  the  year  538 
B.  c,  the  city  of  Babylon  was  taken  by  Cyrus,  King  of  Persia, 
who  commanded  both  the  Persian  and  Median  armies  (1). 
The  last  of  the  kings  of  Babylonia,  Belshazar  or  Nabo  Na- 
dius,  was  slain,  and  the  Babylonian  Empire  was  annexed  to 
Media  and  Persia.  These  three  countries  were  united  in  536 
B.  c.  under  Cyrus,  after  the  death  of  Darius  the  Mede,  and 
were  called  the  Medo-Persian  Empire.  It  included  all  Asia 
Minor,  Syria,  Palestine,  and  afterwards  also  Egypt,  all  the 
land  from  the  Caucasian  Mountains  and  the  Caspian  Sea  to 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Indus  River. 

2.  The  Kings  of  Medo- Persia. 

Fourteen  kings  reigned  successively  over  this  empire,  viz. : 

1.  Darius  the  Mede  from  the  year  538  b.  c. 

2.  Cyrus  "        "       "     536   "   " 

3.  Cambyses  "        "       "     529   "   '' 

4.  Smerdes  "        "      "     522    "   '' 

5.  Darius  Hystaspis  "        "       "     521   "   " 


(1)     M.  C.  Kawlinson's  History  of  Babylon  and  Assyria. 


EESTORATION   OF   THE   TEMPLE 

6.  Xerxes  from  the  year  485  b.  c. 


7. 

Artaxerxes  Longimanus 

li 

465   "   " 

8. 

Xerxes  II.  and 

11 

424  "   " 

9. 

Sogetianus 

a 

424  "   " 

10. 

Darius  Notlrns 

a 

423   "   " 

11. 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon 

a 

404  "   " 

12. 

Darius  Ochus 

a 

359  "   " 

13. 

Arses 

li 

338   "   " 

14. 

Darius  Codomanus 

a 

336  "   " 

3.    The  Dispersed  Hebrews. 

A  few  of  the  Hebrew  people  had  found  their  way  into 
Egypt  and  the  Ionian  Islands,  also  into  Ethiopia,  Arabia, 
India  and  China.  Others  may  have  come  with  the  Phoeni- 
cians to  the  western  coasts  of  Europe  and  Africa.  Still  the 
bulk  of  Hebrews,  of  the  two  former  kingdoms  of  Israel  and 
Judah,  inhabited  the  Medo-Persian  Empire.  Prophets  and 
bards  (2)  had  kept  alive  in  the  breasts  of  many  Hebrew 
patriots  the  hope  of  national  restoration  to  the  land  of  their 
fathers,  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  on  Mt.  Moriah,  the  re- 
institution  of  their  ancient  polity,  and  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  (Qtotj^  nir;^^)- 

4,    Deutero-Isaiah. 

Most  prominent  among  those  eloquent  and  inspired 
patriots  was  the  prophet,  whose  speeches  were  added  to  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  (from  chapter  xl.  to  the  end),  perhaps  be- 
cause his  name  also  was  Isaiah.  When  the  armies  of  Persia 
and  Media,  led  by  Cyrus,  overthrew  the  Babylonian  power 
in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  as  older  prophets  had  predicted  (3), 
this  second  Isaiah,  foreseeing  the  downfall  of  that  empire, 
recognized  in  Cyrus  the  Messiah  (4)  to  redeem  Israel.  He 
called  upon  his  people  to  return  to  the  land  of  their  fathers, 
and  to  re-establish  the  Kingdom  of  God,  in  which  all  the 
great  hopes  of  Israel  should  be  realized. 

5.    Mutual  Sympathies. 

In  the  combat  of  the  Medo-Persians  against  Babylonia, 
the  sympathies  of  the  Hebrews  must  naturally  have  been 
with  the  former.     They  had  nothing  to  expect  of  the  Assyr- 


(2)  Especially  the  Prophets,  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  the  authors  of 
the  five  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Lamentations,  Daniel  and  other 
patriots. 

f3)     Isaiah  xiii. ;  Jeremiah  1.  and  li.;  Ezekiel  xxxviii.  and  xxxix. 

(4)    Isaiah  xlv. 


AND    CULTE-ZERUBABEL.  3 

ians  and  Babylonians,  who  were  their  enemies  and  captors, 
polytheists  and  idolaters,  devotees  of  Zabaism.  The  Medo- 
Persians  avenged  those  wrongs,  were  no  idolaters,  and  ap- 
proached nearest  the  Monotheism  of  Israel  by  the  reforms 
of  Zoroaster  under  Darius  and  Cyrus  (5).  Darius  reciprocated 
these  sympathies.  He  appointed  Daniel  one  of  his  three 
ministers  in  the  new  empire  (6),  and  a  Hebrew  priest  to  super- 
intend the  tower  at  Ecbatana,  which  Daniel  had  previously 
built  for  the  king  (7). 

6.     The  Edict  op  Cyrus. 

Cyrus  having  mounted  the  Medo-Persian  throne  (536 
B.  c.)  decreed  the  re-colonization  of  Judea.  He  gave  the 
Hebrews  permission  to  return  to  their  country  to  take  pos- 
session of  their  lands,  towns  and  cities,  and  to  rebuild  their 
temple.  He  appointed  Zerubabel,  a  descendant  of  the  David- 
ian  kings,  governor,  and  Joshua,  a  scion  of  Aaron,  high 
priest.  He  delivered  to  them  the  silver  and  golden  vessels 
(5400)  of  the  temple  of  Solomon,  brought  to  Babel  by  Ne- 
buchadnezzar, and  furnished  them  with  royal  letters  to  the 
pashahs,  to  give  them  protection  and  to  provide  them  with 
animals  necessary  for  sacrifices ;  as  the  rebuilding  of  the 
temple  and  the  continuation  of  the  sacrificial  culte  were  the 
main  objects  of  the  Hebrews  (8). 

7.     The  People  and  Its  Wealth. 

The  most  religious  portions  of  the  tribes  of  Judah,  Ben- 
jamin and  Levy  only — "All  in  whom  the  Lord  had  roused 
his  spirit,  to  go  up  and  to  build  the  house  of  God,  which  is 
in  Jerusalem" — followed  Zerubabel  and  Joshua  to  the  land 
of  Judah.  The  bulk  of  the  people  remained  in  the  lands  of 
their  captivity.  The  Zerubabel  colony  consisted  of  42,300 
men,  hence,  about  211,500  souls.  There  were  among  them 
an  unknown  number  of  priests  {Kohanim),  341  Levites,  392 
Nethinim  and  Sons  of  the  Servants  of  Solomon  (9),  245 

(5)  Friederich  Spiegel's  Avesta,  etc.,  Einleitung. 

(6)  Daniel  vi.  3.  (7)    Josephus'  Antiquities  x.  xi.  7 

(8)  Ezra  i.  and  vi. 

(9)  Nethinim  were  descendants  of  assistant  ministers  of  the  tem- 
ple appointed  by  King  David  and  the  rulers  (Ezra  viii.  20).  The 
Sons  of  the  Servants  of  Solomon,  counted  with  the  former,  must  have 
been  descendants  of  similar  assistants  appointed  by  King  Solomon. 
They  are  supposed  (Yebamoth  16  b  and  Yerushalmi  Kiddushin  iv.) 
to  have  been  the  scions  of  Gentiles  and  Hebrew  women,  as  the  Ne- 
thinim also  were  supposed  to  be. 


4  RESTORATION    OF    THE    TEMPLE 

singers  of  both  sexes,  and  three  prophets  (10).  They  were 
well  provided  with  servants,  horses,  mules,  asses,  camels 
and  treasures,  partly  the  gifts  of  brethren  remaining  behind. 
Having  arrived  in  Jerusalem,  a  building  fund  was  established, 
to  which  the  rulers  contributed  61,000  gold  drachma  ($14,- 
640.00)  and  5,000  silver  maneh  ($151,500.00).  They  also 
donated  one  hundred  official  robes  for  the  priests  (11). 

8.    The  Land  Occupied. 

The  colonists  took  possession  of  the  land  between  the 
Jordan  River  and  the  Mediterranean  coast  (the  latter  being 
held  by  Philistines  and  Phoenicians),  to  about  twenty  miles 
north  and  south  of  Jerusalem.  North  of  them  were  the 
Samaritans ;  south  from  Hebron  to  the  Dead  Sea  were  the 
Edomites  ;  east  and  southeast  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites, 
with  some  Hebrews  among  them. 

9.    Dedication  op  the  Altar. 

On  the  First  Day  of  the  Seventh  Month,  when  the  first 
summer's  work  was  done,  the  colonists  assembled  in  Jerusa- 
lem to  solemnize  this  feast  {Leviticus  xxiii.  23),  which, 
according  to  the  Mishah  {Joma  I.)  and  Josephus  (Antiqui- 
ties III.  3),  always  was  the  civil  new  year  of  the  Hebrews. 
On  this  day  and  under  fear  of  disturbance  by  the  surrounding 
Gentiles,  the  altar  was  dedicated  and  the  sacrifices  made  as 
prescribed  in  the  Law  of  Moses.  The  daily  sacrifice  was  not 
interrupted  again  up  to  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
By  order  of  that  assembly  contracts  were  made  for  building 
materials,  and  with  the  Phoenicians  for  cedar  wood  from 
Lebanon,  to  rebuild  the  temple. 

10.     Building  of  the  Temple  Commenced. 

In  the  second  month  of  the  second  year  (535  b.  c.)  the 
"building  of  the  temple  was  commenced.  With  music  and 
song  they  begun  to  erect  the  walls  upon  the  old  foundation. 
The  shouts  of  joy  were  mighty.  Still  the  old  men,  who  had 
seen  the  temple  of  Solomon,  wept. 

11.    Animosity  of  the  Samaritans. 

The  Samaritans  {KutJiim),  descendants  of  Gentile  colo- 
nists, brought  to  Samaria  by  Assyrian  kings,  had  adopted 
the  Law  of  Moses,  and  partly  amalgamated  with  flebrews. 

(10)     Zcbachim  62  h.  (11)     Ezra  ii.  and  Nehemiah  vii.  6  to  69. 


AND    CULTE-ZERUBABEL.  5 

They  desired  to  make  common  cause  with  the  Hebrew  colo- 
nists, and  build  the  temple  with  them.  Zerubabel  and  the 
elders  refused  this  offer,  because,  as  they  said,  Cyrus  had 
commanded  them  only  to  rebuild  the  temple.  Thereupon, 
the  Samaritans,  in  league  with  other  enemies  of  the  He- 
brews, persuaded  Cyrus,  or  his  pashahs,  to  revoke  that  por- 
tion of  his  edict,  and  the  work  on  the  temple  was  stopped 
shortly  after  the  beginning  thereof,  and  remained  suspended 
to  the  3^ear  521  b.  c. 

12.    Isaiah's  Consoling  Oracles. 

The  young  colony,  surrounded  by  adversaries,  humiliated 
and  scorned  by  hostile  neighbors,  and  without  sufficient 
protection  from  the  government,  was  sadly  discouraged. 
Cyrus  died,  and  the  people's  misery  increased  under  the  mis- 
rule of  his  two  immediate  successors,  Cambyses  and  Smer- 
des.  Palestine  was  trodden  down  under  the  feet  of  the 
armies  invading  Egypt ;  short  crops,  famine  and  diseases 
followed ;  the  lofty  hopes  of  the  Hebrew  colony  perished 
under  the  ridicule  of  shouting  enemies.  In  that  time  of 
tribulation  and  humiliation,  Isaiah's  consoling  oracles  were 
announced.  This  prophet  predicted  a  glorious  future  to  the 
despondent  House  of  Israel.  He  personified  it  as  "  The  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord,"  now  down-trodden  and  despised,  to  rise 
at  last  to  the  pinnacle  of  glory  (12). 

13.     The  Temple  Rebuilt. 

Times  changed.  In  the  year  521  b.  c,  Darius  Hystaspis 
mounted  the  Medo-Persian  throne,  and  he  introduced  bene- 
ficial reforms  in  the  empire.  The  Hebrews,  encouraged  by 
two  prophets,  Zachariah  and  Haggi,  re-assumed  work  on  the 
temple  and  its  walls,  although  they  had  no  special  permis- 
sion from  the  government.  Sisinnes,  the  Governor  of  Syria 
and  Phoenicia,  wrote  to  Darius  that  the  Hebrews  were  build- 
ing a  citadel  rather  than  a  temple,  and  awaited  instructions. 
Meanwhile,  Zerubabel  returned  to  the  Persian  court,  and 
found  special  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  king  (13).  Search 
among  the  documents  of  Cyrus,  at  the  tower  of  Ecbatana, 
brought  to  light  the  original  edict  of  that  king  concerning 
the  Hebrew  colony,  and  Darius  commanded  its  literal  en- 
forcement ;  granted  to  all  Hebrews  the  freedom  to  return  to 
their  own  country,  sent  holy  vessels  to  the  temple,  and  sup- 
ported the  rebuilding  thereof  with  ten  talents  annually,  and 

(12)    Isaiah  lii.  to  liv.  (13)     Apocryphal  Ezra  iii.  and  iv. 


6  EESTORATION    OF   THE    TEMPLE 

a  salary  to  officiating  priests  and  Levites,  besides  subsidies 
for  the  altar  (14). 

14.     Dedication  of  the  Temple. 

The  third  day  of  Adar  (March),  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Darius  (515  b.  c),  according  to  Ezra  vi.  15,  closing  the  sev- 
enty years  of  the  Babylonian  captivity ;  on  the  twenty- 
third  day  of  that  month  and  the  ninth  year  of  Darius, 
according  to  Josephus,  the  temple  and  its  inner  cloisters 
were  completed.  A  solemn  dedication  followed.  The  He- 
brews again  had  a  religious  center,  to  which,  for  the  subse- 
quent six  centuries,  the  looks  and  hearts  of  all  Israel  were 
directed ;  where  the  sublime  doctrines  of  pure  Monotheism 
and  its  humane  ethics  were  uninterruptedly  proclaimed, 
while  the  Gentiles  were  given  to  Polytheism,  idolatry  and 
slavery.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  Hebrews  in  and  outside  of 
Palestine  has  found  expression  in  the  words  of  Zachariah, 
in  several  Psalms,  and  especially  in  the  triumphal  orations 
of  Isaiah.  Gifts  were  sent  to  the  temple  by  the  Hebrews  of 
Babylonia,  of  which  golden  crowns  were  made  for  Zeru- 
babel,  Joshua  and  the  three  messengers  from  abroad,  and 
deposited  in  the  temple  as  a  memento  of  glorious  days  (15). 
The  four  fast  days  of  national  mourning  were  abolished  (16). 
It  was  predicted  that  the  glory  of  the  second  temple  should 
excel  the  palmy  days  of  Solomon's  temple ;  and  the  tinie 
should  come  when  ten  men  of  all  nations'  tongues  would 
take  hold  of  the  skirt  of  one  Jewish  man,  saying,  "  Let  us 
go  with  you,  for  we  heard  the  Lord  is  with  you "  (17). 
Isaiah  also  (chapter  Ivi.)  prophesied  the  influx  of  the  Gen- 
tiles to  the  House  of  the  Lord,  which  should  be  called  the 
"  house  of  prayer  to  all  nations."  There  was  general  re- 
joicing, and  Israel's  ancient  hopes  for  the  redemption  and 
unification  of  the  human  family  under  the  banner  of  the 
One  God  were  uttered  in  words  of  divine  inspiration  (18). 

15.     Enforcement  of  the  Levitical  Laws. 

The  Levitical  Laws,  "  as  written  in  the  Book  of  Moses," 
and  the  ancient  official  divisions  of  priests  and  Levites, 
were  now  strictly  enforced  in  and  about  the  temple,  among 
priests  and  Levites,  and  also  among  the  laity.  The  people, 
together  with  the  lustratcd  strangers,  celebrated  the  Pass- 

(14)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xi.  iv.  G  and  7  ;  Ezra  vi. 

(15)  Zachariah  vi.  9.  (IG)     Ibid  vii.  viii.  18. 

(17)  Ibid  viii.  23;  Haggi  ii.  9. 

(18)  Isaiah  Iv.  and  Ivi.  1  to  9. 


AND   CULTE-ZERUBABEL.  / 

over  according  to  the  law  (19).  They  observed  the  Sabbath 
(20),  the  First  Day  of  the  Seventh  Month  (21),  the  Day 
of  Atonement  (22),  ate  unleavened  bread  on  Passover  (23), 
and  knew  that  intermarriage  with  certain  nations  was  pro- 
hibited in  the  law  (24).  The  political  laws  of  Moses  were 
not  introduced  in  the  Hebrew  colony.  Zerubabel  had  asso- 
ciated with  himself  the  heads  of  the  families  (25),  and 
Josephus  speaks  of  "  th'e  elders  of  the  Jews  and  the  princes 
of  the  Sanhedrin  "  with  Zerubabel,  and  adds  that  the  gov- 
ernment was  aristocratical.  We  know  that  the  land  was 
divided  in  districts  {Pelech)^  that  some  were  governed  by 
one  ruler  and  others  by  two.  Still,  it  appears  nowhere  that 
the  political  laws  of  Moses  had  been  introduced.  There- 
fore, it  was  a  religious  and  no  political  restoration  which 
"was  achieved  by  Zerubabel  and  Joshua. 

16.     Character  and  Culture. 

The  Hebrew  colonists  were  intensely  religious.  In  the 
captivity,  many  of  their  idolators  amalgamated  with  the 
Gentiles,  while  many  more  of  them  repented  their  sins  and 
acknowledged  their  errors.  Idolatry  itself  lost  its  main 
force  by  the  fall  of  Babylon  and  the  adoption  of  the  Zo- 
roaster reforms  at  the  Persian  court,  which  contained  many 
an  element  imposed  upon  the  Gentiles  by  Hebrew  exiles. 
Besides,  only  the  most  religious  and  patriotic  among  the 
Hebrews  left  their  new  homes  in  the  East  to  return  to  Pal- 
estine. They  were  the  poorer  class  of  agriculturists  and 
skilled  mechanics,  as  is  evident  from  the  country  which 
they  cultivated  and  the  temple  they  built.  They  cultivated 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  (Ezra  ii.  62;  iii.  10),  and  had 
among  themselves  men  of  the  highest  literary  distinction, 
like  the  second  Isaiah,  Haggai  and  Zachariah  (26),  whose 
productions  have  lost  none  of  their  original  force. 

17.     Successors  of  Zerubabel  and  Joshua. 

It  is  not  known  where  and  when  Zerubabel  died.     Seder- 

Olam-Sutta  reports  he  went  back  to  Persia  and  died  there  ; 

■others  report  he  went  to  Arabia  and  died  there.     Philo,  in 

his  Breviariiom,  gives  him  fifty-eight  years  of  government, 


(19)     Ezra  vi.  19.  (20)     Isaiah  Iviii.  13,  14 ;  Nehemiah  xiii.  15. 

(21)     Ezra  iii.  1 ;  Nehemiah  viii.       (22)    Isaiah  Iviii.;  Ezkiel  xl.  1. 

(23)     Ezra  iv.         (24)     Ezra  ix.  (25)     Ezra  iv.  2. 

(26)  Zachariah  ix.  to  xiii.,  was  written  by  a  prophet  at  least  one 
hundred  years  before  Zachariah  b.  Berechiah  b.  Iddo ;  perhaps  by 
Zachariah  b.  Jebarechjahv,  in  Isaiah  viii.  2. 


8  EESTORATION   OP   THE   TEMPLE 

which  is  certainly  a  mistake.  His  successor  in  office  was 
his  son,  Meshullam  (27),  supported  by  his  brother,  Hanna- 
niah,  and  his  sister,  Selomith.  The  successor  of  Meshul- 
lam was  Pelatiah  (Aramaic  Meshezabel),  the  son  of  Hanna- 
niah  (28).  He  was  succeeded  by  Meshullam  b.  Berachiah 
b.  Meshezabel  (29),  who  was  superseded  by  Nehemiah. 
Joshua,  the  high  priest,  according  to  the  Alexandrian  Chron- 
icle, liyed  to  the  third  year  of  Xerxes  (483  b.  c),  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Jojakim,  who  (453  b.  c.)  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  Eliashib. 

18.    Under  Xerxes. 

Xerxes,  the  enemy  of  all  Heathen  temples,  having  as- 
cended the  Medo-Persian  throne  (485  b.  c),  confirmed  to 
the  Hebrews  of  Palestine  all  the  privileges  granted  them  by 
his  father,  Darius.  When  he  invaded  Greece,  it  is  narrated 
by  his  cotemporary,  Cherilus  (30),  a  body  of  Hebrew  war- 
riors was  in  his  army.  Nothing  concerning  the  Hebrews 
being  on  record  from  515  to  458  b.  c,  it  is  evident  that  no 
events  transpired  during  that  time  to  produce  any  change 
or  disturbance  in  the  new  Hebrew  state. 


(27)  I.  Chronicles  iii.  19.    Philo  in  Breviario  calls  him  Eesa  Mys- 
ciollam.     Resa  is  the  title,  Luke  iii.  25,  26,  copies  from  Philo. 

(28)  I.  Chronicles  iii.  21. 

(29)  Nehem.  iii.  4,  30 ;   vi.  18.    See  Geschichie  des  Volkes  Jisrael, 
etc.,  Dr.  L.  Herzfeld,  Vol.  1,  p.  378. 

(30)  Josephus  contra  Apion  i.  22. 


BESTORATION   OF   THE   LAW — EZBA. 


CHAPTER 


Restoration  of  the  Law. — Ezra. 


1.    Ancient  Synagogues. — Academy  of  Ezra. 

In  the  seventh  year  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  (558 
B.  c.)  (1),  when  Jojaldm  was  high  priest  and  Meshullam  b. 
Berachiah  chief  ruler  of  the  Hebrew  colony,  Ezra,  the 
Scribe,  who  was  n^ns  minn  ■i''n?D  isid  "  An  expert  scribe 
in  the  Law  of  Moses,"  appeared  on  the  stage  of  history  as 
one  of  its  most  prominent  figures.  He  was  the  son  of 
Sheraiah,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  high  priests  in  Solo- 
mon's temple.  The  ancient  tradition  {Meguilla  29  «,  Rash 
HasJi-shanah  24  5,  Nidda  13  a)  reports  that  a  synagogue 
was  built  at  Shafjatih,  near  the  city  of  Nehardea,  by  the 
first  exiles  to  Babylonia ;  and  soon  after  another  was  built 
at  Hutzal,  one  parsang  from  the  former  place.  Near  the 
latter,  there  was  the  academy  of  Ezra,  who  "  had  directed 
his  heart  to  inquire  into  the  law  of  God,  and  to  do  it,  and 
to  teach  in  Israel  statutes  and  ordinances  "  (Ezra  vii.  10), 
i.  e.,  political  and  judiciary  law. 

2.    Ezra's  Powers. 

King  Artaxerxes  and  his  seven  counselors,  appointed 
Ezra  Chief-Justice  of  the  Hebrews  west  of  the  Euphrates, 
with  powers  to  appoint  judges  and  bailiffs,  to  teach  and  to 
enforce  the  laws,  and  to  punish  transgressors  with  imprison- 
ment, fines,  expatriation  or  death ;  also  to  head  the  colony 
of  all  Hebrews  who  wished  to  return  to  Palestine ;  and  to 
be  the  special  messenger  of  the  king  to  bring  to  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem  his  gifts  in  gold  and  silver,  and  also  the  gifts 
of  other  donors. 


(1)     According  to  Josephus,  this  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Xerxes. 


10  restoration  of  the  law — ezra. 

3.     Arrival  of  the  Ezra  Colony. 

In  Mesopotamia,  on  the  River  Ahava  or  Mygdonius  (2) 
2,286  men,  perhaps  11,430  persons,  and  among  them  42  Le- 
vites  and  220  Nethiniin^  assembled  to  follow  Ezra  to  Pales- 
tine. After  a  day  of  fast  and  prayer,  on  the  12th  day  of 
the  first  month  {Nissan),  tlie  colony  moved,  and  reached 
Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  month  {Ah).  After  a  rest  of  three 
days,  the  gold,  silver  and  vessels  in  possession  of  Ezra  (3) 
were  delivered  to  the  treasurer  of  the  temple ;  then  the 
emigrants  sacrificed  many  sacrifices,  and  the  documents 
brought  by  Ezra  were  dehvered  to  the  ofhcers  of  the  king. 

4.    The  Samaritan  Tradition. 

Among  the  Samaritans  a  tradition  was  current,  that 
about  the  same  time  300,000  Hebrews,  under  Sanbelat,  emi- 
grated to  the  Nortli  of  Palestine,  and  the  remaining  for- 
eigners in  Samaria  were  sent  back  to  their  original  homes 
in  Persia.  Although  the  Samaritan  Joshua  (chapter  xiv.) 
is  no  reliable  authority  (4),  yet  it  is  almost  certain  that  a 
large  number  of  Hebrews,  at  an  early  date,  emigrated  to 
Samaria  and  Galilee,  for  the  latter  was,  in  after  times,  one 
of  the  most  populous  provinces,  and  the  Hebrew  origin  of 
its  inhabitants  was  never  doubted.  Still,  those  Hebrews 
of  the  northern  provinces,  as  far  as  the  Scriptural  records 
go,  had  no  connection  with  tlie  Zerubabel  or  Ezra  colony, 
which  assumed  the  name  of  Judah,  in  exclusion  of  the 
other  tribes  of  Israel.  Therefore,  wlien  Josej^hus  (Antiq.  x. 
V.  2)  maintains,  "There  are  but  two  tribes  in  Asia  and 
Europe  subject  to  the  Romans,  while  the  ten  tribes  are  be- 
yond Euphrates  till  now,"  he  simply  recorded  a  popular 
my  til  current  in  his  days  (5).     This  Samaritan  tradition,  as 


(2)  See  Ancient  Geography  by  D'Anville. 

(3)  The  whole  sum  umouuting  to  about  $5,200,000,  including  ves- 
sels of  brass,  "  more  precious  than  gold,"  supposed  to  have  been 
aurichalcum. 

(4)  pOlE'  ""DID  by  Eaphael  Kircheim,  p.  55. 

(5)  The  myth  about  the  ten  lost  tribes  is  also  mentioned  in  the 
Mishnah  {Sanhedrin  x.  3),  which  is  partly  contradicted  in  the  Tahnud 
(Me'iuUlah  14  b.  and  Erechin  33),  where  it  is  maintained  the  Prophet 
Jeremiah  brought  them  back  to  Palestine,  and  King  Joshiah  reigned 
over  them.  It  is  evident  from  many  passages  of  Jeremiah  (ix.  22  to 
X.  18 ;  xxiii.  1  to  8  ;  xxxi.  27  to  37 ;  xsxiii.  24  to  26),  that  he  did  at- 
tempt the  re-union  of  Israel  and  Judah,  which  was  done  also  by  the 
Prophet  Ezekiel.  It  is  also  evident  that  not  all  were  driven  from  the 
land  of  Israel  (II.  Chronicles  xxx.),  that  Joshiah  reigned  over  them 
(Ibid  xxxiv.  33  and  xxxv.  17;  and II.  Kings  xxiii.),  and  that  some  He- 
brew inhabitants  had  been  left  there  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (Jere- 
miah xli.  5^ 


RESTORATION   OF   THE   LAW — EZRA.  11 

far  as  Sanbelat  is  concerned,  agrees  with  the  Bible  records, 
but  not  with  those  of  Josephus  (Antiq.  xi.  vii.  2). 

5.    Measures  to  Preserve  the  Purity  of  the  Race. 

Some  of  the  rulers  complained  to  Ezra  that  many  of  the 
Hebrews,  priests,  Levites  and  rulers  especially,  had  become 
lieathenized  in  their  manners  and  appearance,  on  account 
•of  their  intermarriages  with  the  Gentiles.  Ezra  fasted,* 
prayed  and  preached  against  this  corruption  until  he  had 
moved  many  to  repentance,  and  many  of  the  rulers  encour- 
aged him  to  take  active  measures.  Then,  in  behalf  of  the 
rulers,  he  called  a  general  meeting  of  the  people  to  Jerusa- 
lem, threatening  with  confiscation  of  property  for  non-at- 
tendance. On  the  20th  day  of  the  ninth  month  the  people 
assembled  on  the  temple  mount.  Ezra  demanded  of  them 
to  separate  themselves  from  the  Gentiles  and  their  own  for- 
-eign  wives,  in  order  to  preserve  the  Hebrew  race  in  its 
purity.  The  people  consented,  but,  on  account  of  the  rainy 
season  and  the  magnitude  of  the  work  to  ascertain  who  were 
married  to  foreign  wives,  proposed,  ''  Let  our  rulers  remain 
here  for  the  whole  congregation,"  and  let  those  whohavefor- 
•eign  wives  come,  with  the  elders  and  judges  of  each  place, 
-and  report  themselves.  This  was  done  ;  the  rulers  remained 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  three  months  (the  10th,  11th  and  12th) 
they  ascertained  that  17  priests,  110  Levites  and  84  Israel- 
ites had  taken  foreign  wives,  and  were  willing  to  separate 
themselves  from  them.  Among  these  transgressors  there 
were  also  four  of  the  sons  and  brothers  of  Joshua,  the  high 
priest.  But  these  were  certainly  not  all  who  had  foreign 
wives,  and  the  evil  was  but  partially  remedied. 

6.     The  Great  Synod. 

This,  it  appears,  was  the  occasion  when  Ezra  constituted 
-the  Great  Synod  {r]^^i:n  noj^),  the  people  having  expressed 
its  will  to  be  represented  by  the  rulers  (Ezra  x.  14).  He 
could  not  introduce  the  political  laws  of  IMoses  without  con- 
stituting first  a  supreme  legislature  and  judiciary,  similar 
to  the  Council  of  Seventy  Elders.  During  the  Medo-Persian 
period,  the  Great  Synod  was  the  supreme  legislature  and 
judiciary  of  the  Hebrews.  It  was  composed  of  120  men, 
viz. :  44  Sarim  or  Horim,  "  rulers  ;"  44  Seganim,  "  proxies," 
as  each  ruler  had  his  proxy  (6) ;  22  priests,  8  Levites  (Nehe- 


(6)     Nehemiah  x.  15  to  28  and  xi.  25  to  35,  which  compare  to  Ibid 
ii.  16;  iv.  13;  v.  7;  vii.  5;   Nehem.  xi.   25  to  35,  forty-two  districts 


12  RESTORATION  OF  THE  LAW — EZRA. 

miah  xii.  1  to  9),  the  Scribe  and  the  high  priest  or  the  gov- 
ernor. All  these  men  were  representatives  of  family  groups 
and  districts,  as  the  family  groups  lived  together  in  their 
respective  districts.  It  is  maintained  in  the  tradition  that 
many  prophets  were  among  the  men  of  the  Great  Synod, 
which  is  probable  (Nehem.  vi.  7,  14  and  Haggi). 

7.     Object  of  the  Great  Synod. 

The  principal  activity  of  this  body  was  as  presented  in 
its  motto  {Aboth  i.  1) :  To  secure  to  the  Hebrews  the 
judiciary  autonomy  and  a  strict  administration  of  justice  ; 
to  preserve  and  promulgate  the  national  literature  by  many 
disciples ;  to  enforce  and  to  protect  the  Law  of  Moses  by 
new  barriers  (dtd)-  These  were  either  prohibitory  (mi'Tj) 
or  commendatory  laws  (nijpn).  Of  this  latter  category,  are 
certainly  the  ordinances  and  formulas  concerning  the 
courts  and  administration  of  justice,  the  public  worship  in 
the  temple  and  synagogue  and  public  instruction,  public 
morals  and  health  and  domestic  relations ;  some  of  which 
were  based  upon  ancient  custom,  while  others  were  enacted 
in  connection  with  Ezra,  or  also  after  him,  as  this  body  ex- 
isted to  about  292  b.  c.  These  laws  were  afterward  embod- 
ied in  the  Mishnah  and  other  collections  of  ancient  laws  and 
customs. 

8.    A  Republican  Form  of  Government. 

In  connection  with  the  Great  Synod,  over  which  Ezra  pre- 
sided, he  exercised  the  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  king. 
So  the  Hebrew  colony  received  a  democratic  form  of  gov- 
ernment, independent  in  the  three  main  elements,  viz. :  re- 
ligion, public  instruction  and  the  judiciary,  and  dependent 
on  Persia  only  by  pa3dng  a  certain  tribute,  which  appears  to 
have  been  too  insignificant  to  be  mentioned  in  any  of  the 
sources. 

9.    Authentication  of  the  Law. 

The  most  necessary  work  to  be  done  by  Ezra  and  the 
Great  Synod  was  the  authentication  of  the  nation's  writ- 
ten law,  the  Law  of  Moses,  by  which  it  was  henceforth  to  be 
governed.  The  law  existed  before  Ezra  in  the  same  form  as 
it  was  presented  by  him  to  the  Hebrews.  It  is  mentioned 
expressly  as  God's  law,  the  Law  of  Moses,  the  Book  of  the 

are  counted,  besides  Jerusalem  (verse  7),  which  counted  for  two  dis- 
tricts, as  is  mentioned  [Ibid  iii.  9  to  12),  and  as  is  evident  from  the 
courts  of  23  elders  in  Jerusalem. 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    LAW — EZRA.  13 

Law,  or  synonymous  to  the  Word  of  God,  not  only  by  the 
oldest  prophets,  who  quoted  passages  from  it  and  imitated 
others,  but  also  in  all  ancient  historical  records  (7).  These 
records,  fully  corroborated  in  their  main  statements  by  the 
Greek  and  Latin  writers  after  Alexander  the  Great  and  all 
modern  Egyptologists  and  Assyriologists,  admit  of  no 
doubt  as  to  their  statements  of  facts  (8).  Besides,  the 
moral  and  religious  laws  of  Moses  had  been  introduced  and 
practiced  in  Palestine  before  Ezra  (see  Chapter  I.) ;  the 
Samaritans,  who  opposed  Ezra  and  his  institutions,  were  in 
possession  of  the  same  Five  Books  of  Moses,  with  some 
very  slight  variations ;  and  only  two  hundred  years  after 
this  the  Greeks  of  Egypt  accepted  the  Pentateuch  as  the 
Law  of  Moses,  and  there  was  none  to  doubt  its  authenticity. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Ezra  has  not  proved  to  be  a 
writer  capable  of  producing  anything  like  Pentateuch  pas- 
sages. He  and  his  cotemporaries,  who  would  not  even  re- 
place the  Urim  and  Thumim,  or  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
or  any  of  the  lost  articles  of  the  temple,  would  certainly  not 
have  attempted  to  make  a  new  book,  or  any  portion  thereof, 
and  call  it  the  Law  of  Moses.  But,  aside  of  all  these  points,  it 
is  authentically  recorded  (Nehemiah  viii.  to  x.)  that  the  whole 
people  of  Israel  solemnly  confirmed  and  testified  that  the 
book  placed  before  them  was  the  genuine  Law  of  Moses,  and 
this  fact,  in  the  uninterrupted  tradition  of  the  Hebrews 
since  then,  was  never  doubted.  It  appears  that  the  Penta- 
teuch existed  in  numerous  fragmentary  manuscripts ;  that 
many  of  the  copies  were  defective,  burdened  with  errors  by 
transcribers,  glossaries  by  expounders,  amendments  by 
idolatrous  kings,  especially  the  political  laws  of  Moses, 
which  had  been  out  of  practice  since  586  b.  c,  except  in 
some  of  the  larger  colonies  in  the  East;  and  the  ancient 
copies  had  been  lost  in  the  conflagration  of  the  temple  (9). 
Therefore,  the  authentication  of  the  nation's  law  book  and 
the  authorization  of  the  revised  text,  had  become  impera- 
tively necessary,  and  was  accomphshed  by  Ezra  and  the 
Great  Synod  in  thirteen  years,  as  shall  be  narrated  in  the 
next  chapter. 


(7)  Joshua  1.  7,  8;  viii.  31.  34;  xxii.  5;  xxiii.  6,  26;  II.  Kings 
xiv.  6 ;  xvii.  13 ;  xxi  8 ;  xxiii.  24,  25 ;  Micah  iv.  2 ;  Hosea  iv.  6 ; 
Amos  ii.  4  ;  Isaiah  i.  10  ;  ii.  3  ;  ^Hi.  16  ;  xlii.  21 ;  Jeremiah  ii.  8  ;  ix. 
12  ;  xvi.  11 ;  xviii.  18  ;  in  many  Psalms  and  elsewhere.  See  Heng- 
stenberg's  Dissertations  on  the  Genuineness  of  the  Pentateuch. 

(8)  See  John  Gill's  Notices  of  the  Jews  ;    Josephus  contra  Apion. 

(9)  Corrections  made  in  the  text  of  Sacred  Scriptures  by  the 
Sopherim  and  the  Great  Synod,  npHJlH  DD^D  "'K'JX  onDID  ppD,  are 
mentioned  in  Thanchuma  to  Exodus  xv.  7. 


14  restoration  of  the  law — ezra. 

11.    The  New  Alphabet. 

After  the  Law  and  the  other  books,  to  be  named  below^ 
had  been  authenticated  by  Ezra  and  the  Great  Synod,  it 
was  necessary  to  mark  them  most  carefully,  in  order  to  dis- 
tinguish them  fully  fi-om  the  thousands  of  unauthenticated 
copies  circulating  among  the  Hebrews  in  and  outside  of 
Palestine.  Therefore,  Ezra  introduced  a  new  sacred  alpha- 
bet, i.  e.,  to  be  used  for  sacred  purposes  only,  called  3nD 
nniC'S  "  Assyrian  writing,"  or  also  nyniio,  "  the  square  let- 
ter," to  replace  the  ancient  Hebrew  letters  called  }*y"i  "  com- 
mon, barbarian,  foreign,"  or  also  nwuS  "  Libanian,"  or  as 
inscribed  on  bricks.  These  ancient  characters  preserved  on 
Hebrew  coins  were  henceforth  to  be  used  for  profane  pur- 
poses only.  This  alphabet,  now  in  common  use  among  all 
the  Hebrews,  appears  to  have  been  invented  by  Ezra.  He 
improved  on  the  letters  in  use  among  Eastern  scribes,  as  is 
evident  from  the  inscriptions  on  the  ruins  of  Palmyra^ 
which  most  resemble  Ezra's  Hebrew  letters,  although  they 
are  not  like  them.  In  these  letters  the  Book  of  Ezra,  pre- 
served in  the  temple,  was  written.  Then  rules  were  estab- 
lished for  transcribers,  which  afterward  became  fixed  laws,. 
viz. :  the  sacred  book  must  be  written  with  pen  and  black 
ink  on  parchment  (10),  in  one  roll,  divided  in  pages,  certain 
pages  must  begin  with  certain  words,  space  must  be  left  be- 
tween certain  passages,  certain  letters  must  be  written 
smaller  and  others  larger  than  the  rest,  all  in  the  sacred 
alphabet,  in  order  to  distinguish  the  authenticated  copies,. 
and  they  should  only  be  used,  as  is  done  to  this  day,  for 
public  readings  in  the  synagogues  and  the  authentic  law 
book  of  the  nation.  The  Samaritans  did  not  adopt  the  Ezra 
alphabet,  nor  his  revised  Pentateuch,  nor  any  of  his  other 
books. 

12.    The  Book  of  Ezra. 

The  Book  of  Ezra  (xnty  "iSD.  Moed  Katan  iii.  4),  which 
was  preserved  in  the  temple,  consisted  of  seven  books  (11), 
viz. :  the  Five  Books  of  Moses,  the  Book  of  the  Republic, 
now  Joshua  and  Judges,  and  the  Book  of  Kings,  as  in  the 
Septuagint,  now  I.  and  II.  Samuel  and  I.  and  II.  ICings.  It 
was  necessary  to  connect  with  the  law  the  history  of  the 
nation,  as  the  former  without    the  latter  is  unintelligible. 


(10)  To  write  with  pen  and  ink  on  a  roll  or  book  was  known  and 
practiced  before  Ezra.  See  Jeremiah   xxxvi.  18. 

(11)  Sabbath  116  a  min  nsD  TWi^  IPX  nyaK'  nmoy  na^n  Herz- 

feld,  22  Excurs.,  p.  92. 


restoration  of  the  law — ezra.  15 

13.     The  Former  Prophets. 

Ezra  was  not  the  author  of  any  of  the  historical  books 
of  the  Bible,  except,  perhaps,  of  the  portion  II.  Kings  from 
xvii.  6  to  the  end,  as  those  various  books  are  distinguished 
by  various  styles,  of  centuries  apart,  and  different  arrange- 
ments of  the  historical  material.  Judges  and  Kings  are  bre- 
varia,  Joshua  and  Samuel  are  extensive  narratives.  Joshua, 
Judges,  and  the  best  part  of  Samuel,  are  democratic ;  while 
the  closing  chapters  of  Judges  are  royalistic,  anti-Saul  and 
anti-Benjamin,  and  Kings  is  royalistic,  pro-Judaic  and  anti- 
Israelitish.  In  style,  Joshua  is  Pentateuch-like  ;  Judges  (ex- 
cept the  closing  chapters),  antique  and  unfinished ;  Samuel, 
independent  and  accomplished ;  Kings,  from  iii.  to  11. 
Eangs  xvii.  monotonous  and  exact.  Cotemporary  chrono- 
graphy  is  noticed  in  Kings  and  Chronicles,  from  David  to 
the  end  of  those  books,  like  the  lost  books  of  the  various 
prophets,  the  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  the 
Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Israel.  The  Sopher^  or  "scribe," 
and  the  Mazkir^  or  "  Chancellor,"  were  prominent  court 
officers  already  in  the  time  of  David  (I.  Samuel  viii.  17,  18). 
Before  his  time,  also,  sources  are  noticed,  as  the  books,  Mil- 
hamoth,  Jashar,  the  Topography  of  Palestine  (Joshua  xviii. 
6  to  10),  and  the  Genealogy  of  the  Hebrew  People  (I.  Chron- 
icles). These  were  extensive  books,  from  which  extracts 
were  made  for  popular  use.  In  the  Book  of  Joshua  three 
sources  are  distinctly  mentioned  (x.  13 ;  xviii.  1  to  10 ;  xxiv. 
26),  from  which  the  author  drew  his  information.  The  Look 
of  Judges  is  a  popular  democratic  text  book,  and  appears  to 
be  the  work  of  Samuel  (Baba  Bathra,  14  h)-,  to  which,  in 
after  times,  the  pro-Davidian,  royalistic,  anti-Saul  and 
anti-Benjamin  chapters,  were  added.  Samuel  to  I.  Kings 
iii.  3,  is  an  extensive  history  of  the  founder  of  the  Davidian 
dynasty,  and  must  have  been  written  shortly  after  David's 
death,  perhaps  by  the  Prophet  Nathan  (I.  Chronicles  xxix. 
29 ;  II.  Chronicles  ix.  29) ;  anyhow,  by  one  acquainted  with 
all  the  details  of  David's  life  and  reign.  The  book  of  Kings, 
to  II.  Kings  xvii.  is  a  brevarium  which  points  everywhere  to 
its  sources,  and  was  written  before  the  destruction  of  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  by  one  of  the  prophets  (12),  to  which 
Ezra  added  the  closing  chapters.  All  these  books  and  frag- 
ments were  compiled  by  Ezra  and  the  Great  Synod  in  two 
books,  to  which  they  added,  occasionally,  their  own  notes, 
and  these  misled  some  critics  to  place  the  origin  of  these- 
books  long  after  they  had  actually  been  written. 

(12)    By  Jeremiah,  according  to  the  Talmud,  Baha  Balhra,'  jl^  a. 


16  kestoration  of  the  law — ezra. 

15.     Talmudical  Records  op  Ezra  Ordinances, 

The  Talmud  contains  records  of  Ezra  ordinances.  Ten 
are  recorded  in  Baha  Kamma,  82  a.  The  most  important 
are :  {a)  That  Sabbath  afternoon,  Monday  and  Thursday 
morning,  a  section  of  the  Pentateuch  should  be  read  in 
public,  (b)  That  the  district  courts  should  be  in  session  on 
Monday  and  Thursday;  in  consequence  thereof,  these  l)e- 
came  the  market  days.  To  this  must  be  added  (from  Num- 
hers  Rahha,  8  and  Jehamoth^  78  h),  that  he  interdicted 
intermarriage  with  the  Nethinini  who  dwelt  in  Ophel  (Ne- 
hemiah  xi.  21),  consequently,  he  must  have  replaced  these 
Bub-priests  by  others,  and  these  are  the  Anshai  Maamod, 
or  "  Commoners,"  literally,  men  attached  to  standing  divis- 
ions of  priests  and  Levites.  It  was  believed  that  the  earlier 
prophets  {Taanith  iv.  2;  Tosephta  iii.),  divided  priests 
and  Levites  in  twenty-four  divisions,  of  which  each  was  on 
duty  one  week  in  the  temple  twice  a  year,  and  during  the 
holy  days  all  of  them  were  on  duty.  To  these  standing 
divisions,  Ezra  added  a  number  of  Israelites  from  various 
districts ;  and  these  were  the  Commoners,  without  whose 
presence  the  temple  service  was  considered  unlawful.  Part 
of  them  went  to  Jerusalem  with  their  respective  divisions 
of  priests  and  Levites,  and  the  others  on  duty  congregated 
that  week  in  their  respective  district  towns,  and,  excepting 
some  holidays,  held  divine  service  at  the  same  time  that  it 
took  place  in  the  temple,  viz. :  in  the  morning,  Shacharith^ 
in  the  afternoon,  Mincliah,  and  in  the  evening,  Neilah 
{Ihid  Mishnah  4).  They  read  twice,  daily,  from  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  in  the  morning  from  the  scroll,  and  in 
the  evening  from  memory,  and  fasted  four  days  a  week. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  synagogues  and  public  read- 
ing of  the  Law  in  Palestine. 

Ezra  took  from  the  Levites  their  right  of  receiving  the 
tithes  (Deut.  xiv.  29)  and  gave  it  to  the  priests  (pc^'xn  iK^ya), 
because  few  of  the  Levites  returned  with  him  to  Palestine. 
Nehemiah,  it  is  maintained,  repealed  this  law  in  part,  so 
that  the  tithes  could  be  given  to  either  j)riest  or  Levite  (13). 

The  Red  Heifer  (Numb,  xix.),  the  ashes  of  which  was 
required  for  final  lustration  of  him  who  had  touched  a  dead 
person,  was  sacrificed  by  Ezra.  This  and  other  rules  con- 
cerning lustration  ascribed  to  Ezra,  which  were  in  harmony 
with  similar  ideas  and  laws  of  the  Persians,  show  that  the 
laws  of  Moses  touching  Levitical  cleanness  were  re-en- 
forced by  Ezra  (14). 

(13)  Maimonldes  Ililchoth  Maasori.  4,  and  Keseph  Mishnah. 

(14)  "See  Jiachalutz,  by  O.  11.  Schorr,  1869,  p.  39. 


HESTORATION   OF   THE   LAW — EZRA.  17 

The  District  Criminal  Courts,  afterward  called  Sanlied- 
rai  Ketannah,  "  The  Lesser  Sanhedrin,"  two  of  which  were 
in  Jerusalem,  consisted  of  twenty-three  persons,  who  were 
judges,  jurors,  advocates  and  prosecutors  in  one  body. 
These  courts  must  have  been  established  by  Ezra,  although 
the  number  twenty-three  may  have  been  ancient  custom 
(Sanhedrin  i.  6). 

Free  teaching  and  free  trading  were  also  ascribed  to  an 
ordinance  of  Ezra,  viz. :  that  every  teacher  had  the  right  to 
open  a  school  anywhere ;  and  that  peddlers  might  hawk 
their  goods  also  in  cities. 

Other  general  customs  were  also  supposed  to  have  origi- 
nated with  Ezra,  as,  for  instance,  that  Thursday  was  wash- 
day, and  Frida}^  the  day  for  baking  bread;  that  the  bless- 
ings and  curses  written  in  the  Pentateuch  (Leviticus  xxvi. 
and  Deuter.  xxviii.)  should  be  read  in  the  synagogue  on  the 
Sabbaths  before  the  feasts  of  Pentecost  and  Booths. 

16.     The  Work  Done  by  Ezra. 

Ezra  restored  the  Law  and  its  history  to  the  Hebrews 
by  the  fixation  of  its  texts  and  the  protection  of  these  na- 
tional treasures  against  interpolation  ;  the  establishment  of  a 
representative  body  and  courts  of  justice ;  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Law  by  free  teachers  and  the  Commoners.  But 
all  this  was  not  fully  carried  into  practice  before  Nehemiah 
came  to  Jerusalem.  Ezra  was  a  great  scribe,  as  after  him 
all  men  of  learning  were  called  {Sopherim),  and  a  patriotic 
man,  who  feared  the  Lord  and  revered  His  law ;  but  he,  per- 
haps, was  not  the  energetic  man  Avith  the  executive  talent 
that  Nehemiah  was,  nor  was  he  in  possession  of  the  requisite 
authority  to  enforce  his  reforms.  He  was  the  man  of  learn- 
ing to  propose,  but  not  to  execute,  great  reforms.  He  had 
conceived  the  idea  that  the  Law  and  its  expounders  must 
be  the  governing  power  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as 
neither  the  king  nor  the  high  priest  could  replace  the  lawful 
rulers  of  the  theocracy,  who,  according  to  the  Law,  were  the 
prophets  (Deut.  xviii.  17  to  22)  and  the  council  of  the  elders 
(Ibid  xvii.  8  to  13),  and  the  age  of  prophecy  was  closing. 
But  he  could  not  carry  it  out  alone,  l;)ecause  he  had  against 
him  the  aristocracy  of  two  dynasties,  of  David,  the  King, 
and  Zadok,  the  high  priest  of  the  lormer  commonwealth. 
To  overcome  them  it  took  the  energy  of  Nehemiah. 


18  RESTORATION    OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH. 


CHAPTER  III. 


The  Restoration  of  the  State. — Nehemiah. 


1.    Neglected  State  op  Public  Affairs. 

Public  affairs  in  the  Hebrew  colony  were  unsatisfactory. 
The  governors  succeeding  Zerubabel  extorted  high  sala- 
ries from  the  colony,  as  much  as  forty  shekels  a  day,  about 
$14,500  a  year,  and  permitted  their  servants  to  prey  upon 
the  people  (Nehem.  v.  15),  but  did  nothing  for  the  pubhc 
defense.  None  of  the  cities  was  fortified,  the  walls  and 
gates  of  Jerusalem  were  in  ruins,  and  the  inmates  exposed 
to  marauders,  who  pillaged  the  country,  slaughtered  and 
captured  many  of  the  Hebrews  in  Jerusalem  also,  and 
scoffed  at  their  weakness  (Josephus'  Antiq.  xi.  v.  6).  Nei- 
ther Ezra  nor  the  high  priest  possessed  suflicient  power  or 
energy  to  better  the  people's  condition. 

2.     Nehemiah  Appointed  Governor. 

A  young  Israelite,  Nehemiah,  son  of  Chakaliah,  who  was 
the  king's  cupbearer,  in  Susa,  having  been  informed  of  this 
deplorable  state  of  affairs,  resolved  to  succor  his  people. 
After  devout  prayer,  he  approached  the  King,  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus  (1),  with  the  petition  to  be  sent  to  Jerusalem, 
where  the  graves  of  his  ancestors  were,  that  he  might  rebuild 
the  city.  The  king  granted  him  a  furlough,  appointed 
him  Governor  of  the  Hebrew  colony,  gave  him  letters  to 
the  pashas  west  of  the  Euphrates  to  give  him  safe  con- 
duct; also  to  Asaph,  the  overseer  of  the  royal  forests,  to 
furnish  him  the  wood  necessary  for  the  rebuilding  of  the 
walls  and  gates  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  build  himself  a  house ; 


(1)    Xerxes,  according  to  Josephus'  Antiq.  xi.  vl.  7. 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH.  19 

and  to  Adeus,  the  Pasha  of  Syria,  Phoenicia  and  Samaria, 
to  assist  and  pay  due  honor  to  Nehemiah. 

3.    Nehemiah's  Journey  and  Arrival. 

In  the  first  month  of  the  20th  year  of  Artaxerxes  (445 
B.  c),  Neliemiah  left  Susa.  Many  Hebrews  from  Babylonia 
followed  him  voluntarily.  The  pashas  gave  him  a  military 
escort,  so  that  his  arrival  in  Jerusalem  created  a  sensation 
among  the  rulers  of  the  surrounding  nations,  and  was  not 
entirely  welcome  to  the  aristocracy  among  the  Hebrews. 

4.     Preparations  for  the  Rebuilding  of  the  Wall. 

Speed  and  secrecy  were  characteristics  of  Nehemiah. 
When  he  had  rested  three  days  in  Jerusalem,  he  secretly,  at 
night,  inspected  the  walls  to  estimate  the  amount  of  work 
required.  Next  day  he  assembled  the  rulers  in  the  temple, 
informed  them  of  the  privileges  granted  him,  and  demanded 
speedy  action  before  their  enemies  could  interfere.  The 
walls  were  measured  and  the  work  was  divided  propor- 
tionately among  the  rulers,  who  brought  in  the  people  from 
the  various  districts  to  do  the  required  work.  Sanbelat,  the 
Horonite,  Governor  of  Samaria ;  Tobias,  the  Ammonite,  and 
Geshem,  the  Arabian,  most  likely  governors  also,  being  pres- 
ent in  Jerusalem  when  these  preparations  were  made, 
scoffed  at  and  ridiculed  them ;  but  Nehemiah  drove  them 
out  of  the  city,  and  the  work  was  speedily  begun. 

5.    Beginning  of  the  Work. 

The  Hebrews  went  energetically  to  work  on  the  fortifica- 
tions. Eliashib,  the  high  priest,  with  the  other  priests,, 
were  first  at  the  work.  Meshullam  ben  Berechiah,  who  had 
been  suj^erseded  by  Nehemiah,  also  assisted  in  the  great  pop- 
ular enterprise.  Rulers,  people,  and  women  also  (Nehem.  iii. 
12),  worked  Avith  enthusiasm.  The  materials,  wood  excepted,, 
were  at  hand  from  the  overthrown  walls  and  towers  ;  the  old 
foundation  and  the  principal  parts  of  the  old  wall  had  not 
been  destroyed,  and  so  the  work  progressed  rapidly. 

6.    The  Obstacles, 

Sanbelat,  Tobias  and  Geshem,  not  believing  the  Hebrews-- 
capable  of  erecting  fortifications,  first  ridiculed  them  among 
the  surrounding  hostile  nations.  But  when  they  heard  of 
the  progress  made,  they  conspired  against  the  Hebrews,  and 
found  support  among  the  aristocracy  and  pseudo-prophets 


20  EESTORATION    OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH. 

of  Jerusiilem.  Neliemiah,  to  prevent  a  surprise  by  the 
eneni}^,  placed  outposts  around  the  city.  This  alarmed  the 
builders ;  but  Neliemiah  organized  them  in  squads,  armed 
them  and  prepared  them  for  an  attack.  Henceforth,  the 
workmen  were  not  permitted  to  leave  the  city  at  night ; 
half  of  them  did  military  duty,  while  the  other  half  Avorkcd 
on  the  wall,  as  did  also  the  men  of  Nehemiah's  body-guard. 
But  now  the  poor  among  the  people  cried  for  relief.  They 
said  they  were  impoverished,  indebted,  with  their  estates 
mortgaged  and  their  children  sold  into  servitude.  Nehe- 
miah  asscml)led  the  rulers  and  wealthy  men,  and  they  re- 
linquished all  the  debts  and  returned  all  mortgaged  estates 
and  hired  persons.  Now  Sanbelat  came  again,  and,  in  con- 
nection with  the  other  conspirators,  tried  to  entice  Nelie- 
miah out  of  the  city  in  order  to  assassinate  him ;  this  fail- 
ing, he  threatened  to  expose  him  to  the  king  as  one  who  in- 
tended exciting  a  rebellion,  to  have  himself  proclaimed  king; 
but  Neliemiah  was  too  prudent  to  be  entrapped  and  too  firm 
to  be  terrified.  Prophets  rose  in  Jerusalem  and  opposed  Ne- 
liemiah ;  the  aristocrats  corresponded  with  Tobias  and  be- 
trayed Nehemiah's  designs  and  intentions  :  one  wanted  to 
hide  him  in  the  temple,  pretending  that  they  wanted  to 
assassinate  him  that  night,  in  order  to  make  him  ridiculous 
among  the  people,  and  to  expose  him  to  the  displeasure  of 
the  priests.  All  these  obstacles  did  not  discourage  Nehe- 
miah,  nor  did  they  retard  his  work.  He  proved  too  much 
of  a  man  and  patriot  for  the  aristocrats  and  pseudo-prophets 
of  Jerusalem,  with  all  their  allies  among  the  surrounding 
nations. 

7.    The  Work  Finished. 

On  the  25th  day  of  the  sixth  month  {Ellul),  in  fifty- 
two  days  (2),  the  walls  and  the  gates  were  completely  re- 
stored, as  they  had  been  121  years  ago,  before  Nebuzra- 
don  luid  destroyed  them.  This  changed  the  status  of  the 
Hebrew  colony,  which  had  now  a  solid  center  for  self-pro- 
tection, and  was  no  longer  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  its 
barbarous  neighbors. 

8.     The  Location  and  Fortifications  of  Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem  is  situated  in  31°  46'  43"  North  Latitude  and 
35°  13'  East  Longitude,  2,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  29  miles  east  of  it  in  an  air  line.    It  rests 


(2)     In  two  years  and  four  months,  according  to  Josephus,  and  so 
long  it  took,  perhaps,  to  finish  the  towers. 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH  21 

on  four  hills,  Zion,  Moriali,  Bezetha  and  Acra,  which  were 
connected  by  bridges  and  fills.  But  in  the  time  ofNehemiah, 
Mount  Zion  only,  with  the  Temple  Mount  east  and  Ophel 
south  thereof,  was  the  city  which  was  fortified.  In  the  west 
of  Zion  is  the  valley  and  brook  of  Gihon,  which,  almost  at 
a  right  angle,  turns  east,  then  south,  and  forms  the  valley  of 
Hinnom.  East  of  the  city  and  temple  is  the  valley  of 
Jehoshaphat  and  the  brook  Cedron,  uniting  with  Gihon  in  the 
north-east  of  Hinnom.  From  the  lower  side  the  city  was 
considered  impregnable.  The  wall  of  Nehemiah  inclosed 
Zion,  Ophel  and  the  temple,  and  was  thickest  at  the  north, 
parallel  with  the  valley  of  Tyropseon.  where  it  was  called  the 
broad  wall  (Nehemiah  iii.  8 ;  xii.  38),  although  it  vvas  thick 
enough  everywhere  for  a  procession  to  march  upon.  The 
city  had  ten  gates,  viz. :  the  gates  of  Pinnah  and  Ephraim 
on  the  north;  the  gates  of  Jeshenah,  Dagim,  Hatzon, 
Hassusim  and  Ham-maim  on  the  east ;  and  the  gates  of  Gai, 
AsHPOTH  and  Ayin  on  the  west.  In  the  south  and  south- 
east the  hills  were  so  steep  that  no  gates  were  placed  there. 
There  was  a  watch  tower  over  each  gate,  and  two  other 
towers  were  between  each  gate  east  and  west,  four  between 
the  two  northern  gates,  one  at  each  corner  north-east  and 
north-west,  and  one  south-east,  where  the  eastern  wall  of 
Zion  and  the  western  wall  of  0]jhel  met  in  a  sharp  angle ; 
so  that  the  walls  had  nineteen  towers,  connected  by  para- 
pets and  embrasures.  A  stone  bridge  connected  Zion  with 
the  temple,  and  bridges  led  west  over  the  Gihon  and  east 
over  the  Cedron  to  Mount  Olive. 

9.     The  Protection  of  the  City. 

After  the  fortifications  had  been  completed  and  the  gates 
placed,  Nehemiah  still  apprehended  a  surprise  from  the  hos- 
tile neighbors  in  connection  with  the  aristocracy  in  Jerusa- 
lem. Therefore,  he  appointed  two  new  rulers  over  the  city, 
his  brother,  Hanani,  and  one  Hananiah,  and  organized  the 
militia  to  watch  at  day  time  upon  the  walls  and  at  the 
gates,  which  were  not  opened  before  sunrise.  With  this 
protection,  he  was  prepared  to  carry  into  effect  the  proposed 
reforms  of  Ezra  and  his  own. 

10.     Dedication  of  the  Walls  and  the  Census. 

The  people  were  summoned  to  Jerusalem  to  witness  the 
dedication  of  the  wall  and  to  estabbsh  the  genealogy  of 
every  family,  which  was  the  HebreAV  form  of  taking  tlie 
census.     The  multitude  came  to  the  capital  and  witnessed 


9.'? 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH. 


the  solemn  dedication  of  its  walls  (Nehemiah  xii.  27),  on 
the  25th  day  of  the  sixth  month,  closing  with  a  great  feast 
in  the  temple.  Then  the  census  was  taken.  The  genealo- 
gies handed  down  from  the  time  of  Zerubabel  were  corrected 
by  numbers  and  facts  presenting  themselves  at  the  time. 
So  the  foundation  was  laid  to  regular  government,  as  Moses 
had  done  in  his  time  (Numbers  i.),  and  David  in  his  (II. 
Samuel  xxiv). 

11.     Solemn  Acceptance  of  the  Law. 

On  the  First  Day  of  the  Seventh  Month,  the  Law,  as  au- 
thenticated by  Ezra  and  the  Great  S3'nod,  was  laid  before 
the  assembled  people,  "  men  and  women,  and  all  intelligent 
enough  to  understand"  (Nehem.  viii.  2).  In  the  southern 
part  of  Ophel,  before  the  Water  Gate  or  Eastern  Gate, 
there  was  a  large  free  space  where  a  platform  was  con- 
structed, upon  which  Ezra  stood  with  fourteen  chosen  men, 
supported  by  fourteen  Levites,  the  latter  stationed  at  var- 
ious points  among  the  crowd  to  interpret  to  those  who  did 
not  understand  at  once.  Now  Ezra  pronounced  the  ineffa- 
ble name  over  the  assembly,  and  all  fell  upon  their  knees 
and  worshiped,  and  with  uplifted  hands  responded  a  solemn 
Amen  !  Then  he  showed  them  the  new  style  of  ^vriting, 
and  began  to  read  the  authenticated  Law,  which  was  re- 
ceived with  great  enthusiasm,  and  also  with  tears  of  sorrow, 
on  account  of  the  disobedience  of  the  fathers  which  had 
brought  so  much  calamity  on  Israel.  At  noon,  the  assem- 
bly was  dismissed  to  celebrate  the  feast  in  gladness.  The 
next  day  the  elders  assembled  and  made  proclamation  to 
the  people  to  build  booths  for  the  approaching  feast,  as  pre- 
scribed in  the  Law,  which  was  cheerfully  done,  so  that  all 
the  roofs  of  Jerusalem,  the  outer  courts  of  the  temple,  and 
the  open  spaces  were  covered  with  booths,  and  the  Feast  of 
Booths  was  celebrated  with  great  rejoicing.  During  the 
seven  days  of  the  feast,  and  the  eighth  day  being  the  Feast 
of  Conclusion,  the  Law  was  read  daily  before  the  people. 
The  24th  day,  being  the  day  after  the  feast,  another  solemn 
convocation  took  place.  The  reading  of  the  Law  was  closed ; 
then  followed  the  confession  of  sins  and  solemn  worship, 
and,  at  last,  an  instrument  was  written  and  signed  by  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  testif3dng  that  on  that  day 
all  Israel  had  sworn  a  solemn  oath  that  this  was  "  the  Law 
of  the  Lord  which  He  had  given  by  Moses,  the  servant  of 
the  Lord;"  and  that  they  would  forever  observe  all  this 
Law,  its  commandments,  statutes  and  ordinances.  Thus 
the  written  Law,  as  authenticated  by  Ezra,  was  solemnly 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH.  23 

accepted  as  the  law  book  of  Israel  and  the  second  common- 
wealth of  the  Hebrews ;  the  new  State  was  constituted. 

12.     New  Enactments. 

All  persons  born  of  Gentile  women  were  (politically) 
separated  from  the  congregation,  and  intermarriage  with 
Gentiles  was  interdicted.  Buying  and  selling  on  Sabbaths 
and  holidays  was  forbidden.  The  Sabbath  year  was  again 
introduced,  but  not  the  Jubilee  year.  A  tax  of  one-third 
shekel,  instead  of  one-half,  per  annum  for  each  man  was 
imposed  to  sustain  the  public  sacrifices  in  the  temple.  Lots 
Avere  drawn  to  establish  the  privilege  as  to  which  of  the 
families  should  bring  the  wood  to  the  temple,  and  nine  fam- 
ilies received  that  privilege  (Mishnah,  Taanith  iv.  5).  The 
gifts  due  to  priests  and  Levites  were  to  be  brought  to  the 
temple,  and  there  one-tenth  of  the  tithe  should  remain  for 
the  support  of  the  priests  while  in  actual  service,  and  the 
balance  to  be  divided  among  all  priests  and  Levites  who  did 
their  share  of  duty  in  the  temple  service ;  so  that  none  of 
them,  withdrawing  himself  from  duty,  could  receive  any 
support  from  the  public  taxes.  So  the  right  of  citizenship 
was  settled,  the  Sabbath  and  Sabbath  year  enforced,  and 
provisions  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temple  worship 
and  its  servants. 

13.     The  Population  of  Jerusalem  Augmented. 

The  next  reform  of  Nehemiah  v/as  the  augmenting  of  the 
population  of  Jerusalem.  One-tenth  of  the  population  of  the 
Avhole  State  was  required  to  reside  permanently  in  the  cap- 
ital. Many  families  did  so  voluntarily,  and  the  others  were 
drawn  by  lot.  This  made  Jerusalem  a  large  city,  so  that 
Herodotus  (3),  who  shortly  after  traveled  in  Syria,  reports 
that  Jerusalem  was  then  as  important  a  city  as  Sardis,  the 
metropolis  of  Asia  Minor.  Having  a  perfect  military  organi- 
zation, Jerusalem  was  not  only  fully  competent  for  self-de- 
fense, but  it  was  also  in  a  position  to  afford  protection  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  whole  country,  which  put  an  end  to 
the  incursions  of  hostile  neighbors,  and  counterpoised  the 
authority  of  the  aristocratic  families  in  Jerusalem. 


(3)  Herodotus  Thalia  v.;  Prideaux,  in  the  years  610  and  444. 
Herodotus  called  Jerusalem  Cadytis,  as  the  Syrians  called  it  Ka- 
dusha,  and  the  Arabs  call  it  Al-kuds,  all  derived  from  Kedosha,  the 
holy  one,  the  holy  city. 


24  eestoeation  of  the  state — nehemiah, 

14.     Permanence  of  the  Great  Synod. 

The  permanence  of  the  Great  Synod  was  also  established 
by  Nehemiah,  he  enacted  that  the  44  Seganim  must  remain 
permanently  in  Jerusalem  and  have  their  regular  meetings 
in  the  temple  (Nehem.  v.  17 ;  xiii.  11),  while  the  44  Chorim 
or  Sarim  doing  the  executive  business  in  their  res])ective- 
districts,  met  in  the  Great  Synod  at  stated  times  only.  It 
appears  that  the  twenty-four  rulers  of  the  Mishniaroth,  in 
which  priests  and  Levites  were  divided,  as  well  as  the  high 
priest  and  the  scribe,  were  also  among  the  permanent  mem- 
bers of  the  Great  Synod,  so  that  the  body  consisted  of  sev- 
enty permanent  members  as  the  Sanhedrin  in  aftertimes- 
always  did. 

15.     The  Military  Organization. 

The  military  organization  in  the  city  consisted  of  468> 
men  of  Judah  and  928  men  of  Benjamin,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Joel  ben  Zichri,  and  his  lieutenant,  Judah  b.  Ilas- 
senuah.  The  inner  temple  was  guarded  by  120  priests,  un- 
der Zabdiel  b.  Haggedolim.  The  outer  courts  of  the  temple 
were  guarded  by  172  Levites ;  so  that  the  city  had  a  garri- 
son of  1688  warriors  (Nehem.  xi.  6,  8,  9,  14,  19),  besides  the 
Nethinim.,  in  Ophel,  who  had  an  organization  of  their  own, 
under(Ziha  andGishpa.) 

IG.     Nehemiah  Returns  to  Susa, 

In  twelve  years,  from  the  20th  to  the  32d,  of  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus,  Nehemiah  organized  the  Hebrew  State  in  Pal- 
estine, in  all  its  departments  ;  in  the  temple  and  its  service, 
with  its  priesthood,  the  fortification  and  defense  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  the  country,  the  permanence  of  its  legislative  and 
judiciary  departments,  the  regulation  of  taxes  and  public 
duties,  and  all  that  on  the  Law  and  the  democratic  basis 
as  proposed  by  Ezra.  He  took  no  salary  as  governor,  and 
kept  a  princely  household  for  his  people  and  foreigners,  who- 
came  to  Jerusalem.  Before  he  left,  Petahiah  b.  Meshezabel 
was  appointed  governor  (and  he  was  not  of  the  house  of 
David) ;  Sheriah  b.  Hilkiah  was  appointed  chief  priest  in 
the  temple  (and  he  was  not  of  the  high  priests'  family) ;  so- 
he  had  overcome  the  aristocracy  in  Jerusalem,  as  he  had 
discomfited  the  enemies  of  his  people  among  the  adjacent 
nationalities.  In  433  b.  c,  when  Pericles  governed  Athens, 
and  Hippocrates  lived  in  Cos;  when  Socrates  taught  the 
Athenians  his  new  philosophy,  and  Meton  discovered  the 
nineteen  years'  cycle   of  the  lunar  years,  Nehemiah  had 


RESTORATION    OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH.  25 

completely  restored    the    Hebrew    State  and  returned   to 
Persia,  to  King  Artaxerxes. 

17.    The  Successor  of  Ezra. 

It  is  not  known  where  or  when  Ezra  died.  He  disap- 
pears from  the  records  of  history  before  Nehemiah,  and  his 
successor  is  mentioned,  Zadok,  the  Scribe  (Nehemiah  xiii. 
13).  The  traditions  maintain  that  both  Ezra  and  Nehe- 
miah died  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  tenth  month  {Ilalachoth 
Guedoloth,  39  b),  without  teUing  where ;  and  then  it  is 
maintained  that  Ezra  Avas  the  Prophet  Malachi  {Meguillah 
15).  If  so,  he  must  have  lived  for  several  years  after  433 
B.  c,  for  this  prophet  flourished  several  years  after  that  time. 

18.     Skepticism  and  Corruption. 

Within  nine  years  after  Nehemiah  had  left,  an  alarming 
skepticism  took  hold  on  the  minds  of  priest  and  people. 
The  leading  idea  upon  which  the  Laws  of  Moses  had  been 
re-accepted  and  re-enforced  and  the  State  re-constituted 
was,  that  Israel  had  been  punished  and  exiled  on  account 
of  his  disobedience  to  the  Laws  of  Moses ;  therefore,  re- 
newed and  faithful  obedience  to  that  code  would  secure  to 
Israel  God's  special  favor  and  protection,  and  the  complete 
restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  But  now  (431  b.  c.) 
a  grievous  pestilence,  coming  from  Ethiopia,  Lybia  and 
Egypt,  invaded  also  the  land  of  the  Hebrews,  and  cut  off 
many  of  them  (4) ;  droughts  and  locusts  destroyed  the 
crops  (Malachi  iii.  11) ;  now  many  despaired  and  yielded  to 
a  discouraging  skepticism  (5).  Priests  left  the  altar  and 
derided  it  (Malachi  i.  7,  12).  The  people  treated  the  sanc- 
tuary with  criminal  indifi'erence ;  brought  no  longer  the 
tithe  to  the  temple,  as  Nehemiah  had  ordained,  so  that  its 
ministers  had  to  leave  it  (Ibid  iii.  10 ;  Nehemiah  xiii.  10) ; 
married  foreign  women  again  (Malachi  ii.  2 ;  Nehem.  xiii.), 
violated  the  Sabbath,  the  legislators  left  the  temple,  and  the 
state  of  morals  was  very  low  (Malachi  iii.  5;  ii.  10).  In  all 
this  skepticism  and  subsequent  corruption,  the  priests  had 
taken  the  lead  {Ihid  ii.  8),  so  that  Eliashib,  the  high  priest, 
had  given  a  cloister  in  the  temple  to  Tobias,  the  enemy  of 
Israel,  and  his  grandson  had  married  the  daughter  of  San- 
belat.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  Prophet  Malachi 
uttered  his  chastising  speech  and  threatening  oracle,  with 
special  severity    against  the    priests.      The  corruptionists 

(4)  See  Plutarch  in  Pericles,  Thucydides  lib.  2  ;  Hippocrates  lib.  3. 

(5)  See  Malachi  ii.  17  ;  iii.  13  to  15. 


26  RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH. 

asked :  "  Where  is  the  God  of  justice?"  and  the  prophet  re- 
pUed  with  the  prediction  that  the  lord,  the  angel  of  the 
covenant  (Nehemiah),  would  suddenly  appear  in  the  temple 
and  purify  it  again,  and  purify  them  also.  And  so  it  came 
to  pass  that  Nehemiah  unexpectedly  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
424  B.  c,  invited,  perhaps,  by  Malachi  and  the  law-abiding 
citizens. 

19.    Nehemiah  Again  in  Jerusalem. 

Nehemiah  having  again  taken  into  his  hands  the  reins 
of  the  government,  acted  this  time  not  only  with  energy,  but 
with  severity.  Having  again,  on  the  First  Day  of  the 
Seventh  Month,  read  the  law  for  them,  he  forced  them  to 
send  away  their  foreign  wives  and  to  swear  an  oath  that 
they  would  never  again  violate  this  law.  Those  who  re- 
sisted, he  smote  and  plucked  out  their  hair ;  and  the  son  of 
Joiada,  and  grandson  of  the  high  priest,  who  had  married 
a  daughter  of  Sanbelat,  was  driven  out  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  country.  Having  purified  the  priests  and  people,  he 
brought  back  the  Seganim,  the  permanent  portion  of 
the  Great  Synod,  to  their  seats  in  the  temple.  He  drove 
Tobias  from  his  cloister  in  the  temple,  and  again  enforced 
the  regular  delivery  of  the  tithe  and  other  taxes,  and  the 
offerings  of  wood  to  the  temple,  and  appointed  new  officers 
to  conduct  this  matter.  Then  he  called  to  account  the 
Horim,  the  executive  rulers,  for  their  neglect  of  duty,  es- 
pecially in  permitting  violations  of  the  Sabbath ;  he  stopped 
this,  and  would  not  even  permit  the  merchants,  on  the  Sab- 
bath day,  to  stay  near  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  outside  of  the 
city.  So,  by  the  exercise  of  severe  authority,  he  enforced 
obedience  to  the  Law,  and  reformed  the  State  and  temple 
permanently. 

20.    The  End  of  Nehemiah. 

It  is  not  known  how  long  Nehemiah  lived  after  his 
second  coming  to  Jerusalem,  where  or  when  he  died.  In  the 
Talmud  {Sabbath  103  5)  it  is  maintained  that  some  of  Nehe- 
miah's  severe  Sabbath  laws  were  modified  in  aftertimes.  In 
Sanhedrin  93  b,  he  is  also  credited  with  the  authorship  of  the 
largest  portion  of  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  which 
could  be  understood  only  as  referring  to  the  notes  from  which 
those  books  were  afterward  composed.  So  the  three  pioneers 
of  the  second  commonwealth  of  the  Hebrews  passed  away 
unnoticed  in  the  historical  sources.  Each  of  them  left  his 
imperishable  monument.  Zerubabel  established  the  temple, 
Ezra  the  Law  and  the  foundations  to  literature  and  a  demo- 


RESTORATION   OF   THE    STATE — NEHEMIAH.  27 

<3ratic  government,  and  Nehemiah  the  State,  with  its  gov- 
erning institutions.  Gradually  it  assumed  the  name  of 
Judali  or  Judea  (Nehem.  v.  17;  vi.  6,  7;  xiii.  24).  Its  pop- 
ulation, in  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  extended  south  to  Be'er 
Sheba,  including  Hebron,  which  was  afterward  lost  again, 
down  to  Kabze'el  (Joshua  xv.),  on  the  ancient  borders  of 
Edom,  and  up  north  to  Gebia,  the  ancient  border  of  Judea 
{II.  Kings  xxvii.),  a  tract  of  land  of  about  sixty  miles  in 
length  and  breadth  (Nehem.  xi.  25).. 

As  men  and  patriots,  these  three  pioneers  were  immacu- 
late, and  as  founders  of  the  new  form  of  the  theocracy  they 
are  remarkable  for  the  total  absence  of  all  miracles  and 
supernatural  pretensions  in  their  work.  They  appear  as 
natural,  earnest  and  hard-working  men,  who  had  nothing  to 
do  with  evil  sjDirits  or  angels,  or  any  supernatural  support 
besides  God's  aid  to  good  and  honest  work. 


28       JUDEA   UNDER   THE   GOVERNMENT   OF   HIGH   PRIESTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Judea  -wnder  the  Government  of  High  Priests. 


1.    JoiADA,  High  Priest  and  Chief  Ruler. 

After  the  death  of  Nehemiah  and  the  high  priest,  Elias- 
hib  (413  B.  c),  the  Persian  Court  did  not  appoint  governors 
of  Judea.  Samaria  was  the  seat  of  the  Persian  Satrap  for 
Syria,  Phoenicia  and  Palestine.  The  sons  of  David  had  lost 
prestige  under  Nehemiah.  (Psalm  Ixxxix.)  The  ruler  ac- 
knowledged by  the  Law,  the  prophet  (Deuter.  xviii.  15),  was 
no  more ;  the  last  prophets  under  Nehemiah,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Malachi,  had  proved  unworthy  of  their  illustrious 
predecessors.  Therefore,  the  high  priest  was  now  the  first 
man  in  the  theocracy,  and,  contrary  to  the  Laws  of  Moses 
(Leviticus  x.  3),  he  was  acknowledged  the  chief  ruler  of  the 
nation,  although  he  was  no  longer  the  bearer  of  the  Urim 
and  Thumim  (Ezra  ii.  63).  He  presided  over  the  Great 
Synod,  was  the  representative  of  the  people  before  the  king 
and  his  satrap,  and  gradually  he  established  himself  in  the 
highest  dignity  of  the  nation. 

2.    The  Temple  on  Mount    Gerizzim   Built. 

Menasseh,  the  son  of  the  high  priest,  Joiada  (1),  having^ 
married  Nicaso,  the  daughter  of  Sanbelat,  we  have  stated 
l)ofore,  was  driven  out  of  Jerusalem.  Other  priests  guilty 
of  the  same  offense  left  with  him,  and  sought  refuge  in 
Samaria.  His  attempt  to  regain  his  sacerdotal  position 
after  the  death  of  Nehemiah,  was  foiled  by  the  indignation 
of  the  people  and  the  high  priest.  Unwilling  to  relin- 
quish his  title,  he  proposed  to  desert  his  wife.  His  father- 
in-law  promised  him  a  temple  on  Mount  Gerizzim  similar  ta 

(1)    Not  the  brother  of  Jaddua,  as  Josephus  has  it:  Antiq.  ix. 
viii.  2. 


JIIDEA   UNDER   THE    GOVERNMENT   OF   HIGH   PRIESTS.        29 

that  of  Jerusalem,  in  which  he  should  be  the  high  priest. 
Sanbelat  obtained  a  grant  to  this  effect  from  Darius  Nothus, 
who  was  then  involved  in  a  war  with  Egypt  (2),  and  the 
temple  was  built,  and  the  same  culte  introduced  as  in 
Jerusalem.  Menasseh  was  its  first  iiigh  priest,  and  other 
expatriated  priests  were  his  subordinates.  All  the  reforms 
of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  rejected,  and  the  Pentateuch, 
in  its  more  ancient  form  and  letters  only,  was  retained,  in 
which  some  changes  Avere  made.  Deuter.  xi.  29  to  32  was 
placed  after  the  Decalogue  in  Exodus,  to  prove  that  God  had 
sanctified  Mount  Gerizzim  as  the  place  for  Israel's  sanc- 
tuary. The  Samaritans  tried  to  prove  that  they  were  de- 
scendants of  Joseph,  and  the  claims  of  Sichem  as  the  holy 
city  were  older  than  those  of  Jerusalem.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear that  the  Hebrews  of  Judea  were  much  opposed  to  the 
new  temple,  which  was  strictly  monotheistic  and  Mosaic  in 
its  culte,  especially -as  they  had  repeatedly  rejected  the 
Samaritans ;  although  there  is  a  tradition  on  record  (3)  that 
the  priests  and  elders  of  Jerusalem  pronounced  the  great 
ban  over  the  Samaritan  temj)le  and  its  priests.  Those  who 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  reforms, 
sought  refuge  in  Samaria  and  found  protection,  so  that  the 
new  temple  contributed  indirectly  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  peace  in  Judea,  and  extended  the  power  of  the  high 
priest's  family. 

3.    A  High  Priest  Slays  his  Brother  in  the  Temple. 

Joiada  died  373  b.  c,  after  an  official  career  of  thirty-two 
years,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  oldest  son,  Johanan. 
Joshua,  or  Jesus,  his  younger  brother,  was  the  favorite  of 
Bagases,  the  Persian  Satrap  of  Syria,  under  Artaxerxes  II., 
and  he  promised  the  high  priesthood  to  Jesus.  ■  Accordingly, 
he  appeared  in  Jerusalem  as  the  high  priest  aiDpointed  by 
the  king's  satrap,  and  Johanan  held  the  office  by  right  of 
primogeniture.  The  quarrel  lasted  several  years,  and  nei- 
ther was  willing  to  resign.  The  Hebrews  could  certain- 
ly not  submit  to  the  innovation  of  having  their  high  priest 
appointed  by  the  king  or  his  satrap.  In  the  year  366  b.  c, 
Jesus  one  day  entered  the  inner  court  of  the  temple  and  at- 
tempted, by  force,  to  discharge  the  high  priest's  functions. 
This  led  to  a  personal  encounter,  in  which  Johanan  killed 
his  brother  Jesus.  This  fratricide  brought  Bagases  to 
Jerusalem.      Nothwithstanding    the    protestations    of   the 


(2)  Not  Darius  Codomanus,  as  Josephus  has  it. 

(3)  Pirkai  R.  Eliezer  xxxviii.  end. 


30       JUDEA   UNDER   THE    GOVERNMENT   OF    HIGH   PRIESTS. 

priests,  he  entered  the  inner  court  of  the  temple  to  inspect 
the  place  where  the  assassination  had  taken  place ;  and 
then  imposed  a  fine  upon  the  people,  to  pay  to  the  king 
fifty  shekels  for  every  lamb  sacrificed  on  the  altar.  As 
there  were  eleven  hundred  and  one  lambs  sacrificed  a  year 
for  the  congregation,  the  fine  amounted  to  55,050  shekels 
per  annum.  The  amount  of  the  fine  was  small,  but  the 
principle  that  the  king  should  exercise  the  right  of  inter- 
fering with  their  divine  services  was  mortifying  to  the  He- 
brews, and  they  looked  upon  it  as  a  punishment  inflicted 
upon  them  by  Providence  for  the  crime  committed  in  the 
temple.  Still,  they  paid  that  fine  seven  years  (to  359  b.  c.)^ 
when  Artaxerxes  II.  died,  and  a  revolution  at  the  Persian 
court  relieved  them  of  this  burden. 

4.    The  Esther  and  Mordecai  Story,  346  b.  c. 

The  events  which  transpired  during  the  reign  of  the 
third  Artaxerxes,  as  he  called  himself,  although  he  was 
called  Darius  Ochus  (son  of  Artaxerxes  II.),  are  narrated 
in  the  Book  of  Esther  and  in  Josephus  (4).  That  the  Ahas- 
veros  of  the  Bible  was  one  of  the  Medo-Persian  kings,  and 
not  the  father  of  Darius,  the  Mede  (Daniel  ix.  1),  or  CJamby- 
ses  (Ezra  iv.  6),  one  whose  name  was  Artaxerxes,  is  evident 
from  the  concurrence  of  the  Septuagint,  the  apocryphal  Es- 
ther and  Josephus ;  all  of  them  call  him  Artaxerxes.  In 
the  Syriac  version,  Peshito,  he  is  plainly  called  Achshirash,. 
son  of  Achshirash,  which  is  Artaxerxes,  the  son  of  Arta- 
xerxes, which  could  refer  to  Darius  Ochus  only.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  Esther  and  Mordecai  story  can  not  be  con- 
nected with  any  one  of  the  kings  of  Medo-Persia  preceding 
Artaxerxes  III.,  and  that  his  character,  as  described  by 
Diodorus  Siculus  and  QuintiusCurtius,  corresponds  exactly 
to  the  Ahasveros  of  the  Bible.  The  man  who  killed  eighty 
of  his  brothers  and  filled  the  land  with  human  gore,  looks 
more  like  the  Ahasveros  of  Scriptures  with  his  bloody  edicts 
than  does  any  of  his  predecessors.  Besides,  he  was  an 
enemy  of  the  Hebrews,  who,  it  appears,  gave  support  to  the 
Phoenicians  who  revolted  against  Persia.  In  the  eighth 
year  of  his  reign,  when  he  had  taken  Zidon,  he  besieged  and 
took  Jericho,  took  many  captives  of  the  Hebrews,  led  part 
of  them  with  him  into  Egypt  and  sent  others  to  Hyrcania, 
on  the  Caspian  Sea.  to  settle  parts  of  that  country  (5). 
Therefore,  the  Hebrews  were  disliked  at  the  king's  court, 
and  Esther's  parentage  was  not  made  known,  and  Mordecai, 


4)  Antiq.  xi.  vi. 

5)  Josephus  contra  Apion,  etc.,  H.  Prideaux,  351  b.  c. 


JUDEA   UNDER    THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    HIGH    PRIESTS.        31 

although  he  had  saved  the  king's  life,  was  in  disfavor  at 
court.  The  dates  given  in  the  Book  of  Esther  fit  exactly  in 
the  life  of  Ochus.  He  gave  his  great  banquet  in  the  third 
year  of  his  reign,  when  he  had  been  firmly  settled  on  his 
throne.  He  married  Esther  in  the  seventh  year  of  his 
reign,  before  he  took  the  field  against  Phoenicia  and  Egypt. 
The  bloody  edict  against  the  Hebrews  was  issued  in  the 
twelfth  year  of  his  reign,  after  his  victories  over  Egypt, 
when  he,  according  to  Diodorus  Siculus  (Lib.  xvi.),  yielded 
himself  entirely  to  a  hfe  of  laziness  and  pleasure,  and  left 
the  administration  of  government  entirely  to  his  favorite 
ministers.  After  this  king  had  disposed  of  his  wife,  Vashti, 
he  married  Esther,  "  the  star,"  who  was  also  called  Hadas- 
SAH,  "  the  myrtle."  She  was  a  niece  of  Mordecai,  of  the 
tribe  of  Benjamin,  which  the  king  knew  not.  The  king's 
favor  was  bestowed  entirely  upon  a  haughty  and  revengeful 
Amalakite,  whose  name  was  Haman.  This  bloody  despot, 
in  the  absence  of  the  king,  exacted  divine  honors  of  the 
courtiers  also.  Mordecai,  a  man  of  strictly  monotheistic 
principles,  refused  to  bend  his  knee  before  the  mighty  min- 
ister, which  kindled  his  wrath  against  the  proud  Hebrew, 
and  he  determined  upon  taking  revenge  on  the  whole  race. 
He  persuaded  the  king,  by  false  representations  and  heavy 
bribes,  to  issue  a  decree  against  all  the  Hebrews  in  the  em- 
pire, outlawing  them  and  their  property,  and  giving  permis- 
sion to  slay  all  of  them  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  Adar,  and 
to  take  their  property.  The  decree,  however,  had  been  is- 
sued a  year  previous  to  its  execution,  so  that  it  appears  it 
was  intended  more  against  the  property  than  the  lives  of 
the  Hebrews,  who  might  have  left  the  country  meanwhile. 
By  the  influence  of  Mordecai  upon  his  niece,  Queen  Esther, 
and  her  influence  upon  the  king,  the  mighty  minister  was 
overthrown,  and  ended,  with  ten  of  his  sons,  upon  the  gal- 
lows. The  royal  decree  could  not  be  revoked  according  to 
the  laws  of  the  empire ;  therefore,  the  Hebrews  were  given 
ample  means  of  self-defense,  and  on  that  fatal  thirteenth 
day  of  Adar,  when  they  were  attacked  by  avaricious  and 
bl()od-thirsty  enemies,  they  successfully  defended  them- 
selves and  did  terrible  execution.  In  memory  of  that  event, 
the  fourteenth  day  of  Adar  was  made  a  half  holiday,  called 
PiiRiM,  on  account  of  the  lots  cast  by  Haman,  and  also  the 
fifteentli  day,  called  ShusJian  Purim,  because  the  Hebrews 
of  Susa  had  made  a  special  day  of  festivities.  Esther  was 
the  favorite  queen,  and  Mordecai,  after  that  event,  occupied 
the  highest  position  at  the  king's  court.  The  Hebrews  of 
Susa  and  the  immediate  vicinity,  it  appears,  were  the  victims 
singled  out  by  Haman,  while  those  at  a  distance  from  the 


32        JUDEA    UNDER    THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    HIGH    PRIESTS. 

Persian  capital  were  not  molested  by  the  edict,  and  were 
not  attacked ;  consequently,  needed  not  defend  them- 
selves. This  was  certainly  the  case  with  the  Hebrews  of 
Palestine.  Therefore,  the  Purim  feast  was  established  by 
Mordecai  and  Esther,  and  not  by  any  lawful  authority  in 
Jerusalem,  and  was  most  likely  observed  a  long  time  in  the 
East  before  it  was  introduced  in  Palestine. 

5.     The  Last  PIigh  Priest  of  this  Period. 

Johanan  remained  in  office  up  to  the  year  341  b.  c,  Avhen 
he  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Jaddua,  who  was  the 
last  of  the  six  high  priests  of  this  period,  named  in  Nehe- 
miah  xii.  10,  11,  in  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle  and  in  Jose- 
phus.  According  to  the  Talmud,  there  were  two  more, 
Onias  I.  and  Simon  the  Just,  who  is  said  to  have  held  this 
dignity  forty  years,  and  was  high  priest  when  AlexaJider 
arrived  before  Jerusalem. 

6.     The  Great  Synod  and  its  Work. 

Nothing  is  said  in  Jewish  sources  about  the  high  priests 
after  Nehemiah's  time,  because  no  political  disturbances  or 
changes  took  place  in  Judea,  and  the  internal  development 
of  that  period  was  credited  to  the  Men  of  the  Great  Synod, 
over  whom  the  high  priest  presided,  and  without  whose  con- 
sent nothing  could  be  done.  The  Great  Synod  carried  the 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  reforms  into  general  practice.  The  ob- 
servation of  the  Sabbath  became  so  general  that  warriors 
would  not  fight  on  Sabbath.  Intermarriage  with  foreign 
women,  and  with  it  also  bigamy,  had  become  almost  extinct, 
so  that  for  centuries  no  case  of  either  was  reported.  The 
abomination  of  idolatry  had  been  extended  so  far  that  He- 
brew soldiers,  under  Alexander,  would  rather  stand  any 
punishment  than  assist  in  rebuilding  a  Heathen  temple. 
Therefore,  most  of  the  post-biblical  laws  of  the  Hebrews 
and  the  ancient  customs,  also  those  called  •^roD  nt^'o!?  riD^n, 
"  Rule  by  Moses  from  Sinai,"  in  reference  to  the  Sabbath, 
marriages,  idolatry,  temple  service,  taxes,  Levitical  clean- 
ness, including  those  concerning  forbidden  food,  the  judi- 
ciary and  procedure,  had  their  origin  with  the  Men  of  the 
Great  Synod.  They  expounded  the  Laws  of  Moses  and  ex- 
tended provisions  in  the  sense  of  the  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
reform.  In  the  same  sense,  the  Sopherim  taught  the  peo- 
ple.    Therefore,  the  general  statement  (6) :    "  The  Men  of 

(6)    Jerushalmi,  Shekalim  v.:  niD^H  K^mo  IJpn  nijnJH  nDJ3  'K'JS 


JUDEA    UNDER    THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    HIGH    PRIESTS.        33 

the  Great  Synod  established  exigese  (to  expound  the  laws), 
rules  (statutes),  and  sermons." 

In  civil  and  criminal  law  there  are  also  certain  principles 
and  post-biblical  statutes  which  were  never  disputed  by  the 
Sadducees,  and  must,  consequently,  have  originated  with 
the  Great  Synod.  This  body,  therefore,  laid  the  foundation 
to  the  post-biblical  or  ral)liinical  code  of  the  Hebrev/s,  al- 
though it  is  not  ascertained  in  each  case  which  particular 
hnv,  principle  or  custom  can  claim  this  antiquity. 

7.     The  Sopherim  and  their  Work. 

The  learned  men  after  Ezra  were  called  Soplierim  (sin- 
gular Sopher).  "  Scribes ;"  because  to  be  a  skilled  writer 
was  the  lirst  criterion  of  a  man  of  learning.  To  transcribe 
the  authenticated  Law  as  deposited  in  the  temple  was  one 
of  the  Scribe's  occupations.  His  next  occupations  were  to 
read,  expound  and  teach  it.  The  text  was  without  vowel 
points,  without  divisions  of  words,  verses  and  chapters ; 
hence  it  was  nearly  hieroglyphic,  so  that  the  correct  reading 
thereof  was  traditional,  and  had  to  be  communicated  from 
master  to  disciple.  As  the  Great  Synod  legislated  by  ex- 
pounding and  extending  the  Law,  these  additions  also  had 
to  be  taught  orally.  The  teachers,  to  be  trusted  in  all  these 
points,  had  to  be  distinguished  for  learning  and  piety,  and  to 
keep  themselves  posted  in  all  tli«  enactments  of  tl:ie  Great 
Synod. 

8.     The  Synagogue  and  the  Sopher. 

One  hundred  years  after  Ezra,  there  was  a  synagogue  in 
every  important  town  in  Judea,  which  was  the  court-house 
and  the  place  for  public  worship  and  instruction,  as  was 
also  the  case  in  the  temple  synagogue  (7).  By  the  Anslie 
Mci'amod^  or  "  Commoners,"  the  temple  service,  with  the 
exception  of  the  sacrifices,  was  imitated  in  their  respective 
places  in  the  country.  The  Great  Synod  legislated  for  the 
temple,  and  the  synagogical  service  was  arranged  accord- 
ingly. In  the  temple,  certain  Psalms  were  sung  by  the  Le- 
vites;  the  Shema  and  the  Decalogue  were  read  twice  every 
day,  with  certain  brief  benedictions  before  and  after;  and 
this  was  done  also  in  the  synagogues  until  it  was  considered 
a,  duty  that  every  person  should  pray  those  very  prayers 
twice  a  day.     When  the  Great  Synod  added  seven  benedic- 


(7)  It  appears,  however,  that  in  the  temple  the  Lislirhalh  Ilag  ga- 
zith  was  two  stories  high ;  the  lower  hall  was  the  synagogue,  and  the 
upper  one  was  the  hall  of  the  Sanhedrin. 


34        JUDEA   UNDER   THE   GOVERNMENT   OF   HIGH   PRIESTS. 

tions  to  the  daily  exercises  (8),  this  was  also  done  in  the 
synagogues,  and  at  last  by  the  individuals.  In  the  temple, 
certain  portions  of  the  Law  were  read  on  Sabbath,  holidays 
and  new  moons,  which  was  also  done  in  the  synagogues, 
with  the  Ezra  addition  of  such  readings  on  Monday,  Thurs- 
day and  Sabbath  afternoon.  These  readings  of  the  Law  re- 
quired a  skilled  and  informed  reader,  a  Sopher;  hence, 
there  had  to  be  a  Sopher  in  every  synagogue  to  read  and  to 
expound  the  Law.  Some  of  the  Sopherim  were,  at  the 
same  time,  teachers,  and  others  judges,  while  a  number  of 
them  were  members  of  the  Great  Synod.  So  a  new  power 
rose  up  gradually  in  the  land,  which  took  the  place  of  the 
prophets  of  old ;  a  power  independent  of  the  accident  of 
birth,  because  any  gifted  man  could  become  a  Sopher.  It 
Avas  the  power  of  intelligence,  which  vied  with  priest  and 
prophet  for  the  first  rank  and  authority  (9). 

(8)  The  eighteen  benedictions  md?  HilDK'  are  of  a  later  origin. 
The  ancient  sources  have  but  seven ;  three  in  praise  of  God,  m3X 
Dtrn  nti'lp  rrnUJ,  and  three  of  thanksgiving  and  blessing  in  con- 
clusion w^T\2  T\'2~\1,  nnin  ^nvn  between  which  a  seventh  was  inserted, 
except  on  New  Year,  when  three  were  inserted,  and  the  Day  of 
Atonement,  when  various  others  were  added.  Mishah,  Yoma,  vii.  1 ; 
Rash  Haahonah,  iv.  5. 

(9)  The  Great  Synod  is  also  credited  with  having  authenticated  or 
even  written  some  of  the  Biblical  books  [_Baha  Bathra,  15  a].  This 
point  will  be  discussed  in  another  chapter. 


LITERATURE  AND   CULTURE.  35 


CHAPTER  V. 


Literature  and  Culture  of  the  Medo-Persian  Period. 


1.     The  Canon. 

The  seven  books  of  the  Canon  established  by  Ezra  and 
the  Great  Synod,  are  now  before  us  as  rnin,  the  Thorah, 
Law,  Pentateuch  or  Five  Books  of  Moses,  and  D"':trN"i  D'N'DJ; 
the  Former  Prophets,  comprising  the  Books  of  Joshua, 
Judges,  I.  and  II.  Samuel,  I.  and  II.  Kings.  This  division 
was  made  at  a  later  period  {JBaha  BatTira^  14  5),  and  was 
not  adopted  by  the  Greek  translators. 

2.    The  Popular  Literature. 

Besides  the  Canon,  there  was  considerable  literature  in 
the  possession  of  the  Hebrews,  which  was  afterward  added 
to  the  Canon,  and  is  now  before  us  as  the  Books  of  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  eleven  minor  prophets.  Psalms,  Lamenta- 
tions and  Proverbs,  besides  the  various  books  of  prophets 
and  chronographers  to  which  the  author  of  Chronicles  refers. 
All  these  books,  perhaps,  in  a  fragmentary  condition,  must 
have  existed  at  that  period.  Some  of  the  Psalms,  besides 
the  oldest  ones,  were  used  by  the  Levites ;  such  as  Psalms 
Ixvii.,  xcii.,  xciii.,  xcv.  to  c,  cxi.  to  cxiii.,cxxxv.  and  cxxxvi.^ 
cxliv.  cxlv.,  and  others  (1).  Others  were  used  in  private 
devotion,  such  as  Psalms  x.,  Ixxi.  Ixxvii.  and  cii.  Psalms 
cxxxv.  and  cxxxvi.  were  most  likely  the  Jlallel^  or  fes- 
tive hymn,  sung  by  the  Levites  at  the  Mussaph,  or  addi- 
tional sacrifice  of  the  new  moons  and  three  feasts. 

3.    The  Literature  Produced  during  this  Period. 

The  Medo-Persian  Period  was  eminently  productive  in 
Hebrew  literature.     We  possess  from  that  period — 

(1)    See  Mishnah  Tamid,  vii.  4. 


36  LITERATURE    AND    CULTURE   OF 

(a)  Prophetical  books,  viz. :  the  second  Isaiah  (Isaiah 
xl.  to  Ixvi.),  Haggai,  Zachariah  (except  ix.  to  xii.),  Malachi 
and  Jonah. 

(h)  Historical  books,  viz. :  Ruth,  Chronicles,  Ezra  and 
Neheniiah. 

(c)  Various  Psalms. 

(d)  The  Book  of  Job. 

4.  The  Book  of  Ruth. 

It  is  evident  from  Ruth  iv.  7,  and  the  fact  that  none  of 
the  earlier  historiographers  mention  the  names  of  Boaz, 
Ruth,  Elimelech  or  Naomi,  and  the  linguistic  peculiarities 
of  that  beautiful  idyl,  that  it  was  written  from  a  tradition 
which,  perhaps,  was  preserved  in  the  Davidian  family  long 
after  the  event  which  it  describes  transpired.  It  appears  to 
have  been  written  early  in  the  Medo-Persian  Period  (2)  and 
in  defense  of  Gentile  mothers  in  Israel,  against  whom  the 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  reforms  were  so  severe.  The  little  book 
places  before  the  reader,  to  the  very  best  advantage,  a 
daughter  of  Moab,  who  is  rich  in  all  virtues  and  becomes 
the  mother  of  the  royal  house  of  David.  The  objects  of  the 
author  are  plain.  Pie  wants  to  show  that  not  all  Gentile 
women  are  objectionable,  as  some  of  them  might  be  like 
Ruth ;  that  the  ways  and  means  of  Providence  are  obscure, 
and  must  be  submitted  to  with  faith  and  fortitude,  which 
was  a  special  theme  of  that  period,  as  shall  be  shown  below ; 
and  that  the  heathens  Avill  be  converted,  as  the  second 
Isaiah  had  predicted  wdtli  so  much  force.  Perhaps  the  wife 
of  the  high  priest  of  the  Gerizzim  temple  was  the  immedi- 
ate cause  that  this  idyl  was  written.  Its  tendency  is  evi- 
dent and  the  time  of  its  origin  can  not  be  doubtful,  although 
the  author's  name  has  not  been  preserved. 

5.  The  Book  of  Jonah. 

That  the  Book  of  Jonah  was  not  written  after  this  period 
is  evident  from  the  fact  of  its  having  been  accepted  in  the 
prophetical  canon,  established  soon  after  this.  That  it  was 
not  written  before  is  evident  from  the  following  points  :  (a) 
Its  lyric  portion  (chapter  ii.)  is  an  imitation  of  older  Psalms. 
(  h)  It  is  based  on  a  fable,  a  method  adoj^ted  by  none  of  the 
other  prophets,  (c)  It  is  cosmopolitan  ;  speaking  of  and  to 
Heathens  in  a  spirit  of  cathoHcity,  without  reference  to  or 
preference  for  Israel,  Avhich  distinctly  marks  its  origin  in  a 
time  after  the  exile,  when  the  Hebrews  had  come  in  close 


(2)     See  Dr.  Abraham  Geiger's  Urschrifl,  etc.,  p.  49,  etc. 


OF   THE    MEDO-PERSIAN   PERIOD.  37 

contact  with  many  nations  between  the  Caspian  Sea, 
the  Indus  and  the  Nile,  (d)  It  speaks  favorably  of  the  As- 
syrians, the  arch-enemies  of  Israel,  which  points  to  an  age 
Avhen  that  empire  was  no  more,  (e)  It  discusses  the  prob- 
lem of  Providence,  showing  why  and  when  God  punishes 
not  the  wicked,  a  question  matured  in  the  minds  at  the  time 
of  Malachi,  and  no  prophet  or  philosopher  discusses  a  theme 
before  its  existence  in  the  public  mind,  (f)  It  demon- 
strates the  point  that  the  Pagans  can  and  will  be  converted, 
as  predicted  by  the  second  Isaiah. 

6.    The  Psalms  of  this  Period. 

For  similar  reasons  as  in  Section  5,  we  conclude  that 
Psalm  civ.  is  from  this  period ;  it  is  a  hymn  on  the  cosmos 
and  a  defense  of  Providence ;  it  has  for  its  foundation  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  its  author  rises  to  a  height  in 
cosiTiology  unknown  then  among  Gentiles.  Psalm  ciii.  is  an 
amplification  of  Exodus  xxxiv.  6,  7,  and  David  did  not  imi- 
tate. Psalm  cxix.  with  eight  verses  to  each  letter  of  the 
alphabet,  in  fervent  praise  of  the  Law  with  all  its  ordi- 
nances and  statutes,  is  certainly  from  this  period,  and  shows 
by  its  mnemotechnic  construction  that  it  was  the  text  book 
in  the  lower  schools  conducted  by  Soplierim.  as  expressed 
in  verses  7,  9,  25,  33,  34,  etc.,  which  also  imbued  the  pupils 
with  a  desire  after  loftier  interpretations  of  the  Law,  as  in 
verses  10,  14,  18,  etc.  Psalm  xix.  is  certainly  of  this  period, 
as  its  cosmic  start  and  its  praise  of  the  Law  prove.  The 
WHOLE  LAW,  as  proposed  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  with  all  its 
ancient  statutes  and  ordinances,  was  not  equally  welcome 
to  all,  and  all  Psalms  in  praise  of  the  whole  law,  its  pro- 
found signification  and  hidden  meanings,  as  well  as  most  of 
the  didactic  and  the  alphabetical  Psalms  are  products  of 
this  period.  Psalms  cxxvii.  and  cxxxvii.,  of  course,  are  of 
this  period. 

7.    The  Book  of  Job. 

The  oldest  notice  concerning  the  origin  of  the  Book  of 
Job  is  in  the  Talmud  {Baha  Bathra,  15),  where,  it  ap- 
pears, two  opinions  stand  uncontradicted  :  (1)  The  story  of 
Job  is  fictitious  ;  and  (2)  Job  was  one  of  those  who  returned 
from  the  Babylonian  exile.  There  was  a  pious  man  in  the 
land  of  Uz,  who  passed  through  a  series  of  visitations  (Eze- 
kiel  xiv.  14,  20),  came  out  consistently  and  triumphantly, 
returned  to  Palestine  (Job  xlii.  10),  and,  after  his  death,  was 
made  the  hero  of  this  wonderful  book  on  Providence.  The 
Book  of  Job  could  not  have  been  written  in  the  prophetical 


38  LITERATURE   AND    CULTURE 

age :  because  (a)  it  is,  in  form  and  style,  entirely  different 
from  all  prophetical  writings.  It  is  not  imperative,  like 
Moses  ;  not  historical,  like  the  former  Prophets ;  not  predic- 
tive, like  the  latter  Prophets  ;  not  psalmodic,  like  David,  and 
not  gnomic,  like  Solomon  :  it  is  purely  lyric-didactic  in  the 
dialogue  form,  like  Plato  and  portions  of  the  Avesta.  (h) 
It  philosophizes  and  is  full  of  skepticisms,  and  a  propheti- 
cal age  doubts  not  and  reasons  not  discursively.  The 
prophet  utters  intuitive  knowledge,  and  Job  is  discursive. 
No  fruit  ripens  before  its  season  or  out  of  its  climate,  (c) 
It  opens  with  an  allegory  (3)  in  heaven,  which  is  not  an  imi- 
tation of  Isaiah  vi.  or  Ezekiel  i.,  but  of  a  Persian  court,  and 
has  as  a  prominent  figure  among  the  heavenly  satraps, 
Satan,  unknown  in  Hebrew  literature  before  Zechariah,  a 
poetical  fiction,  which  points  directly  to  the  Ahriman  of  the 
Persians  accommodated  to  the  allegory,  (d)  Like  Jonah 
and  Psalm  civ.,  it  is  cosmic  and  cosmopolitan  in  its  concep- 
tions, (e)  Throughout  the  arguments  of  Job  and  his  four 
friends,  the  name  of  Jehovah  is  mentioned  but  once  (xii.  9), 
and  there  in  a  quotation.  This  points  directly  to  a  time 
when  the  Hebrews  would  not  use  the  tetragrammaton, 
which  was  certainly  not  in  the  time  of  the  prophets.  (/") 
It  contains  quotations  and  imitations  of  Psalms  and  Pro- 
verbs, and  is  held  in  the  meter  and  parallelism  of  the  latter. 
Still,  the  Book  of  Job  could  not  have  been  written  long  after 
the  prophetical  period,  for  at  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
God,  as  Jehovah,  is  introduced,  speaking  to  Satan,  to  Job 
and  also  to  Eliphaz,  not  with  -\2l,  "  to  speak,"  but  njy,  "  to 
impose  "  knowledge,  Avhich  is  not  exactly  the  prophetical 
form.  None  of  the  writers  of  the  next  period,  not  even  the 
author  of  Daniel,  had  the  boldness  to  let  God  speak  to 
them.  Therefore,  the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Job  must  be 
placed  near  the  end  of  the  prophetical  period ;  hence,  near 
Malachi,  with  whom  the  prophetical  period  closes.  This 
prophet  affords  us  the  key  to  Job's  philosophy.  The  preva- 
lent skepticism  which  Malachi  attacks  (i.  2,  8,  12 ;  ii.  17 ; 
iii.  14,  15),  concerns  Providence  especially  in  these  two 
points :  (1)  Why  should  we  Hebrews  observe  God's  laws 
when  we  are  treated  no  better  than  the  Heathens?  To  this, 
the  authors  of  Ruth  and  Jonah  reply,  because  you  are  no 
better  than  the  Heathens,  who  are  also  God's  children,  to 
trust  in  Him  Avith  faith  and  fortitude  or  to  repent  their  sins 
on  hearing  God's  threatening  oracles.  Do  the  same  and 
God  will  be  gracious  to  you,  as  he  was  to  Ruth  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Nineveh.     (2)  Why  are  those  who  do  fear  the  Lord 

(3)     All  names  and  numbers  in  the  book  are  plainly  allegoric. 


OF   THE   MEDO-PERSIAN   PERIOD.  39 

nevertheless  subject  to  severe  affliction?  To  this,  the  Book 
of  Job  responds  with  different  reasons  (4),  and  one  is,  God, 
who  has  given,  may  take  away,  and  He  who  takes  away 
gives  back  seven-fofd.  The  afflictions  of  the  righteous  are 
visitations  of  grace  (5),  intended  to  puriff  and  to  elevate 
him  in  the  scale  of  human  perfection.  Malachi  said  (i.  11), 
"  For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  his  setting,  my  name  is 
great  among  the  Gentiles ;  and  at  every  place  sacrifice  is 
made  to  my  name,  and  pure  meal  offering  ;  for  my  name  is 
great  among  the  nations,  saith  Jehovah  Zebaoth."  This  is 
also  a  leading  idea  with  Jonah,  Psalm  civ.  and  with  Job, 
whose  four  friends  are  supposed  to  be  foreigners,  who  know 
nothing  of  Jehovah.  Therefore,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Job  Avas  written  shortly  after  Malachi,  hence  near  to  400 
B.  c,  while  Ruth  and  Jonah  may  have  been  written  some 
decades  before.  The  prevailing  skepticism,  it  appears,  also 
gave  rise  to  Psalm  1.  and  the  re-introduction  among  the  tem- 
ple songs  of  Psalm  liii.  (Psalm  xv.),  with  the  new  conclusion. 
The  author  of  Job  exhausts  the  various  philosophisms  on 
Providence  which  reason  advanced  in  his  days,  and  shows 
that  Job  and  his  friends,  Elihu  included,  fail  to  account  for 
Job's  afflictions,  the  real  cause  of  which  is  stated  in  the 
very  beginning  of  the  book  ;  hence,  their  reason  fails  in 
solving  the  mysteries  of  Providence.  Therefore,  God  him- 
self appears,  at  last,  to  solve  the  problem,  or  rather  to  in- 
form Job  that  man  can  not  solve  it,  that  he  must  believe, 
confide  and  hope.  So  the  book  proves  the  necessity  of  rev- 
elation and  faith  and  the  insufficiency  of  reason.  There- 
fore, it  was  supposed  Moses  must  have  written  it. 

8.     I.  AND  II.  Chronicles,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 

That  the  author  of  I.  and  II.  Chronicles  was  also  the 
compiler  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  which  were  but  one  book, 
has  been  established  by  Dr.  L.  Zunz  (6).  Ezra  and  Nehe- 
miah consist  of  original  notes  by  those  men,  written  in  the 
first  person,  and  portions  written  by  the  compiler,  which  are 
in  style  like  the  Chronicles ;  and  the  beginning  of  Ezra  is 
taken  from  the  close  of  Chronicles.  Therefore,  we  know 
that  these  books  were  written  after  the  Nehemiah  census 


(4)  See  MoREH  Nebuchim,  III.  Volume,  chap,  xvii.,  and  Sepher 
Ikkaeim,  iv.  Maamar,  chapt.  vii. 

(5)  HDHK  ^^>  D'llD"  Bemchoth,  5. 

(6 )  GoTTESDiENSTLicHE  VoRTRAEGE.  The  chapter  on  the  Chronwt 
was  translated  in  EngUsh  by  myself,  and  published  in  the  Asmonean 
in  the  year  1852. 


40  LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE 

had  been  taken  (compare  Nehem.  xi.  and  I.  Chron.  ix.),  an(i 
shortly  before  the  advent  of  Alexander  the  Great  (about- 
350  B.  c),  as  the  high  priest  Jaddua  is  mentioned  in  Nehe- 
miah  (xii.  11).  This  author  ignores  the  ancient  Hebrew 
Republic,  the  reign  of  Saul,  and  barely  refers  to  the  king- 
dom of  Israel.  The  main  portion  of  his  book  (from  I. 
Chron.  x.  to  II.  Chron.  ix.,  29  chapters),  is  devoted  to  David 
and  Solomon,  whom  he  glorifies,  omitting  the  most  grievous 
sins  of  both.  So  he  neglects  the  prophets  and  glorifies  the 
priests.  The  main  center  of  his  thoughts  was  the  temple 
and  the  priesthood.  He  wrote  at  a  time  when  the  house  of 
David  appeared  only  as  a  reminiscence  of  past  glory,  chiefly 
as  the  builders  of  the  temple ;  the  prophets  were  no  longer 
a  living  power  among  the  Hebrew  people  :  the  temple  was 
the  main  center,  and  the  high  priest  the  chief  ruler. 

9.    The  Language  Spoken. 

The  Hebrews  of  Judea,  during  this  period  and  long  after 
it,  spoke  Hebrew,  and  called  the  language  n''Tin',  JeJiuditk 
or  Jewish  (Nehem.  xiii.  24).  The  glowing  patriotism  of  the 
Hebrews  in  exile,  with  orators  like  Ezekiel  and  the  second 
Isaiah,  and  a  literature  as  described  above,  rendered  it  im- 
possible to  forget  the  language  of  their  country  in  fifty 
years  ;  especially,  as  many  of  their  leaders  outlived  the  cap- 
tivity and  returned  to  their  home  which  they  had  left  as 
young  men  (Ezra  iii.  12).  But  if  they  had  forgotten  their 
national  language,  the  patriotism  of  Nehemiah  and  the  en- 
thusiasm of  Ezra  would  certainly  have  restored  it  with  the 
Law,  as  the  best  medium  of  preserving  both  the  Law  and 
the  nationality.  Nehemiah  complains  about  the  offspring 
of  those  who  had  foreign  wives,  that  they  could  not  speak 
any  language  correctly ;  but  those  were  few  only,  and  be- 
cause he  complains  about  the  jargon  of  the  few,  the  correct 
JeJiudith  must  have  been  the  language  in  general  use. 
This  is  evident  from  the  addresses  and  notes  of  the  prophets,. 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  which  must  have  been  Aramaic  or 
Syriac,  if  such  had  been  the  language  of  the  country,  cr 
written  in  strict  imitation  of  the  more  ancient  classical 
Hebrew,  like  the  Book  of  Job,  which  was  no  popular  ad- 
dres-s.  But  those  si^eeches  and  notes,  as  well  as  the  original 
passages  in  Chronicles,  show  new  and  advanced  forms  of  a 
spoken  Hebrew,  tinctured  with  Aramaisms,  adopted  by  con- 
tact. Therefore,  it  is  unhistorical  to  speak  of  any  Targurriy 
''  Aramaic  version,"  or  any  Meturgamon,  "  Translator,"  of 
Scriptures  introduced  by  Ezra. 


of  the  medo-persian  period.  41 

10.    The  Religious  Idea. 

A  nation's  literature  is  the  barometer  of  its  cultural  at- 
mosphere :  the  age  which  produced  the  Books  of  Ruth, 
Jonah  and  Job,  and  Psalm  civ.,  must  have  been  enlightened, 
tolerant  and  humane.  With  the  second  Isaiah,  Malachi  and 
Jonah,  there  is  an  end  to  all  one-sided  and  narrow-minded 
particularism.  Jehovah  is  the  author  and  governor  of  the 
universe,  the  Father  of  the  human  family,  and  Israel  is 
"  His  servant,"  charged  with  the  mission  of  redeeming  and 
uniting  the  human  family  in  the  universal  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  under  the  banner  of  truth,  freedom  and  justice. 
Therefore,  Israel  must  preserve  His  integrity  among  the 
nations  and  be  holier  than  others,  which  can  be  done  only 
by  obedience  to  the  whole  Law.  If  those  writers  did  not 
reflect  the  spirit  of  their  age,  they  must  certainly  have 
made  it.  With  this  religious  idea  at  the  base,  the  second 
commonwealth  of  the  Hebrews  was  started,  and  the  Demo- 
cratic form  of  government  was  made  an  indispensable 
necessity.  Whether  a  lay  governor  or  the  high  priest  col- 
lected the  foreign  king's  taxes,  was  indifl'erent ;  the  nation, 
with  all  its  institutions,  temple,  synagogue,  schools  and 
courts  of  justice,  was  governed  by  the  Law,  its  expounders, 
and  the  people's  representatives  in  the  Great  Synod.  No 
Messiah  was  expected ;  no  prince  of  the  house  of  David  was 
wanted ;  no  miracles  were  wrought ;  no  fantastic  specula- 
tions or  transcendental  hopes  indulged  in ;  the  jDCople  and 
its  leaders  were  sober  and  practical.  Their  iiiclination  to 
skepticism  demonstrates  a  new  era  of  intelligence. 

11.     Art  and  Science. 

The  Hebrews  were  agriculturists.  No  traces  of  com- 
merce, except  domestic  trade,  are  found  in  this  period.  In 
the  sciences,  the  advanced  knowledge  of  that  period  is  de- 
monstrated by  the  temple  on  Mount  Moriah  and  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  which  embodied  leading  principles  in  mathe- 
matics and  physics  and  sublime  ideals  of  beauty  in  archi- 
tecture. Cosmology,  far  in  advance  of  all  cotemporary  na- 
tions, is  expressed  in  the  second  Isaiah,  Job  and  Psalm  civ. 
The  author  of  the  Book  of  Job  speaks  astronomical  figures 
of  speech  as  though  that  science  had  been  popular  among 
his  cotemporaries,  and  philosophizes  on  the  highest  prob- 
lems with  an  ease  and  grace  which  betoken  his  own  intimacy 
with  metaphysics,  and  his  supposition  that  many  would  un- 
derstand him  well.  It  is  not  formal  philosophy  formally 
expressed ;  it  is  its  substance  in  the  graceful  garb  of  beauty, 
and  this  pre-supposes  both  depth  of  thought  and  an  enno- 


42  LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE. 

bled  taste.  It  would  be  highly  interesting  and  instructive 
to  discover  the  actual  state  of  that  period's  civilization  in 
its  literature,  but  our  method  of  brevity  would  not  allow 
this  research.  We  can  only  refer  to  general  characteristics. 
We  have  before  us  a  small  nation  far  advanced  in  the  reli- 
gious and  ethical  idea,  the  arts  of  civilization  and  the  main 
sciences  ;  a  nation  without  sculptors  and  painters,  but  with 
musicians,  singers,  orators,  poets,  philosophers  and  writers 
admired  to  this  day  as  intellects  of  the  highest  order,  and 
we  have  the  right  to  judge  the  age  by  its  exponents. 


II.    The  Grecian  Period. 

This  period,  extending  from  332  to  167  b.  c,  from  the  coming  of'*" 
Alexander  the  Great  to  Jerusalem  to  the  insurrection  of  the 
Hebrews  under  Mattathia,  the  Asmonean,  will  be  narrated  in 
the  next  four  chapters,  being  the  sixth,  seventh,  eighth  and 
ninth,  of  this  book.  It  is  usually  called  the  Macedonian  Period, 
because  the  Macedons  were  the  main  supporters  of  Alexander, 
and  many  of  the  Greek  settlers  in  Asia  and  Egypt  were  called 
so.  It  is  more  correct,  however,  to  call  it  the  Grecian  Period, 
because  the  Grecizing  aptitude  of  the  Hebrews  is  characteristic 
of  this  period  of  history ;  its  aggressions  and  the  defense  made 
against  it  are  the  underlying  principles  which  led  at  last  to  the 
Maccabean  insurrection  and  the  civil  war.  The  most  import- 
ant events  of  this  period  are :  the  growth  of  the  Hebrew  com- 
monwealth, the  origin  of  the  Sanhedrin,  the  Greek  translation 
of  the  Law,  the  mutual  influence  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew 
mind,  and  the  consequent  literature. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Judea  under  European  Rulers. 


1.    Two  New  Kings. 

The  year  335  b.  c,  gave  to  the  then  civihzed  world  two 
new  kings  of  historical  fame  ;  Codomanus,  called  Darius  III., 
was  made  King  of  Persia,  and  Alexander,  King  of  Mace- 
don  and  commander-in-chief  of  all  Greece,  after  he  had  de- 
stroyed the  city  of  Thebes,  slain  90,000  of  her  inhabitants, 
and  sold  30,000  surviving  captives  into  slavery.  The  last  of 
the  Medo-Persian  kings,  Darius  III.,  was  a  brave  though 


44  JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS. 

unfortunate  monarch.  Alexander,  born  at  Pella,  in  356  b.  c, 
was  then  not  quite  22  years  of  age.  He  was  an  atrocious 
barbarian,  although  Aristotle  was  his  tutor,  Socrates  and 
Plato  had  humanized  the  Greeks,  and  Demosthenes  had  but 
lately  delivered  his  Philippics  and  Olynthiacs.  Alexander 
inherited  his  father's  (Philip  of  Macedon)  unbridled  ambi- 
tion and  warlike  spirit,  and  was  a  native  martial  genius,  as 
great  and  successful  as  he  was  rash,  passionate  and  wicked. 
He  conquered  Asia,  from  the  Black  and  Caspian  Seas  to  the- 
Indian  Ocean,  from  the  Hellespont  to  beyond  the  Indus 
Kivcr,  Egypt  and  Eastern  Europe  to  the  Adriatic  Sea  and 
the  Danube  River ;  and  yet  he  was  a  base  drunkard  and  as- 
sassin, guilty  of  the  most  atrocious  crimes  committed  by 
man.     He  was  the  greatest  warrior  of  his  age. 

2.  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  Conquered. 

In  the  year  334  b.  c,  with  an  army  of  34,000  men,  and 
seventy  talents  (about  $72,000)  in  his  treasury,  Alexander 
crossed  the  Hellespont  at  Sestus,  into  Asia  Minor.  A  few 
days  later,  at  the  river  Granicus,  he  encountered  the  Per- 
sian army,  outnumbering  his  five  to  one,  and  routed  it  in 
open  battle.  This  victory  brought  into  his  possession  th& 
royal  treasury  at  the  city  of  Sardis  and  all  the  provinces  of 
Asia  Minor,  which  had  many  and  dominant  Greek  cities. 
Securing  the  fruits  of  this  victory,  he  marched  eastward  into- 
Cilicia,  and  secured  to  himself  the  straits  between  this 
province  and  Syria.  The  battle  of  Issus  was  fought  there 
(333  B.  c).  The  vast  army  of  Darius  was  routed ;  his  camp, 
baggage,  mother,  wife  and  children  were  captured,  and  Syria 
was  open  to  the  invader.  Having  sent  Parmenis,  one  of 
his  lieutenants,  to  take  Damascus  and  Coelosyria,  Alexan- 
der, with  his  main  army,  marched  into  Phoenicia,  and  met 
with  no  resistance  anywhere  until  he  reached  the  city  of 
Tyre,  which  he  was  forced  to  besiege  fifteen  months,  and 
then  to  take  it  by  storm. 

3.  Jerusalem  Submits  to  Alexander. 

The  protracted  siege  of  Tyre  could  not  have  been  under- 
taken without  receiving  provisions  for  the  army.  The  next 
agricultural  countries  were  Judea  and  Samaria.  Therefore,. 
Alexander  sent  embassadors  to  Samaria  and  Jerusalem,  de- 
manding submission  and  provisions.  The  Samaritans  sent 
supplies  and  a  corps  of  eight  thousand  men  to  Alexander's 
army.  The  Hebrews  refused,  because,  as  they  said,  their 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  of  Persia  was  sacred  and  in- 
violable.    This  provoked  the  ire  of  the  great  warrior,  and. 


JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS.  45 

after  he  hadiaken  Tyre,  he  marched  to  Jerusalem.  Judea 
had  no  army  and  could  offer  no  resistance.  The  Persians 
were  far  away  beyond  the  Euphrates.  The  alternative  was 
.either  submission  to  Alexander  or  a  siege  of  Jerusalem, 
with  the  fate  of  Tyre  before  it.  The  high  priest,  Jaddua  (1), 
in  order  to  pacify  the  conscience  of  his  people  concerning 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  had  recourse  to  a  divine  dream,  in 
which,  as  he  said,  God  had  commanded  him  to  submit  to 
Alexander,  and  to  meet  him  in  a  certain  solemn  manner. 
This  was  satisfactory.  The  city  was  decorated,  the  high 
priest  and  priests  (2)  in  their  sacerdotal  robes,  the  rulers  and 
citizens  in  white  garments,  forming  a  stately  procession, 
went  forth  to  receive  Alexander,  at  Zophim,  "  Prospect,"  a 
hill  west  of  Jerusalem,  from  which  the  temple  and  city 
<30uld  be  overlooked.  Nothing  could  be  more  welcome  to 
him  than  the  submission  of  a  strong  city  and  a  rich  coun- 
try ;  and  nothing  could  be  more  flattering  to  his  vanity 
than  this  demonstration  of  friendship  and  submission. 
Therefore,  Alexander,  ap^jroached  by  the  high  priest,  bowed 
to  him  reverently  and  treated  him  kindly.  In  explanation 
of  his  conduct,  he,  like  Jaddua,  also  referred  to  a  dream 
which  he  had  before  crossing  the  Hellespont  (3).  He  was 
led  in  triumph  through  the  decorated  city  to  the  temple, 
where  he  made  sacrifices  to  the  God  of  Israel,  received  the 
■oath  of  allegiance,  secured  to  Judea  all  the  privileges  en- 
joyed under  the  Medo-Persian  monarchs,  and  exemption 
from  tribute  every  Sabbath-year.  The  people  had  no  cause 
to  regret  the  change  of  rulers,  and  the  priests  called  every 
boy  born  that  year  Alexander.  No  changes  in  the  internal 
government  of  Judea  were  made. 

4.     Samaria  Annexed  to  Judea. 

The  Samaritans  were  not  as  fortunate  as  the  Hebrews. 
They  invited  Alexander  to  visit  their  capital  and  temple, 
and  he  did  not  do  it ;  they  also  begged  exemption  from 
tribute  every  Sabbath-year,  and  it  was  not  granted,  although 
they  had  assisted  him  before  Tyre  with  men  and  provisions. 
They  were  dissatisfied,  and  soon  after  avenged  themselves. 
For  Alexander,  going  into  Egypt,  appointed  one  of  his  fa- 

(1)  According  to  the  Talmud,  Simon  the  Just,  the  grandson  of 
Jaddua,  then  high  priest,  was  in  office  forty  years,  368  to  29-!  b.  c. 
He  was  vice-high  priest  Segav,  for  he  prepared  a  red  heifer,  and  may 
have  been  the  governor  de  facto  already  in  the  time  of  Jaddua. 

(2)  There  were  then,  in  all  Judea,  about  1,500  priests,  says  Heca- 
teus. 

^3)    Josephus'  Antiquities  xi.  viii.  5. 


46  JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS. 

vorites,  Andromachus,  Governor  of  Syria  and  Palestine. 
This  governor  coming  to  the  city  of  Samaria,  the  people 
rose  against  him,  set  fire  to  the  house  in  which  he  was,  and 
he  perished  in  the  flames.  Alexander,  on  returning  from 
Egypt,  caused  all  to  be  slain  who  had  taken  any  part  in  this 
outrage,  drove  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  out  of  the  city  of 
Samaria,  colonized  it  with  Macedonians,  annexed  the  whole 
territory  of  Samaria  to  Judea  free  of  extra  tribute  (331  b.  c.) 
(4),  and  left  to  the  exiles  the  city  of  Schechem,  near  their  tem- 
ple of  Mount  Gerizzim,  which  ever  after  remained  the  cap- 
ital of  that  sect.  The  eight  thousand  Samaritan  soldiers  in 
Alexander's  army  were  sent  to  Thebes,  in  Egypt,  and  set- 
tled there.  The  Hebrews  of  Judea  were  brought  in  close 
contact  with  Galilee,  which,  it  appears,  was  included  in  Sa- 
maria. 

5.    A  Crime  of  Alexander. 

Alexander  marched  from  Judea  into  Egypt.  He  was 
detained  two  months  before  the  city  of  Gaza,  which  he  fin- 
ally took  by  storm.  Here  Alexander  committed  another  of 
his  atrocious  crimes.  The  Persian  commander,  Betis,  of 
this  city,  was  taken  alive.  Holes  were  cut  behind  the  sin- 
ews of  his  heels  ;  the  valiant  man  was  tied  to  a  chariot,  and, 
as  Achilles  had  dragged  the  dead  body  of  Hector  on  the 
walls,  dragged  through  the  streets  of  Gaza  till  he  was  dead. 

6.  The  Site  of  Alexandria  Selected. 

In  a  very  short  time  Alexander  subjected  all  Egypt  to 
his  sway.  In  the  winter  of  332  b.  c.  he  journeyed  from 
Memphis  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  in  the  desert  of 
Libya,  where  he  had  himself  declared  by  the  priests  a  son  of 
that  god.  On  his  way  thither  he  discovered  a  site  in  the 
Delta  of  the  Nile  opposite  the  Island  of  Pharus,  which,  in 
opposition  to  Tyre,  he  selected  for  a  new  commercial  city, 
to  be  called  Alexandria.  It  was  laid  out  at  once  and  build- 
ing commenced.  On  returning  from  Libya  to  the  site  of 
Alexandria,  he  invited  colonists  to  this  new  city,  and  among 
them  also  the  Hebrews,  to  whom  he  granted  equal  rights 
with  the  Macedonians  as  a  reward  of  their  fidelity  and  as- 
sistance (5). 

7.  End  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire. 

In  the  year  331  b.  c,  which  Ptolemy,  the  astronomer, 
counts  the  first  of  Alexander's  reign  over  the  East,  Alexan- 

(4)  Josephus  contra  Apion  ii.  4. 

(5)  Josephus'  Wars  ii.  xviii.  7  and  Contra  Apion  ii. 


JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS.  47 

der  marched  across  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  Rivers  in  pur- 
suit of  Darius  and  his  army.  The  two  armies  met  in  Octo- 
ber above  Ninevah,  near  a  place  called  Aribela,  and  Darius 
was  defeated.  He  fled  into  Media,  was  captured  by  two  of 
his  own  lieutenants  and  after  some  time  slain  by  them. 
Alexander,  a  short  time  thereafter,  was  in  undisputed  posses- 
sion of  the  whole  Medo-Persian  Empire,  and  invaded  India 
beyond  the  Indus  River,  not,  however,  before  he  had  burned 
down  the  ancient  city  of  Persepolis  and  had  committed  all 
the  outrages  of  a  drunken  villain. 

8.    The  Hebrews  Refuse  to  Rebuild  a  Heathen 

Temple. 

Up  to  the  year  324  b.  c,  Alexander  was  incessantly  en- 
gaged in  conquests,  the  organization  of  government  and  the 
practice  of  vices.  In  this  year  he  came  back  to  the  city  of 
Babylon,  which  he  intended  to  make  his  capital,  and  to 
beautify  to  its  utmost  capacity.  He,  carrying  Greek  idola- 
try into  the  East,  also  undertook  to  rebuild  the  temple  of 
Bel  destroyed  by  Xerxes.  The  soldiers  were  ordered  to  re- 
move the  debris.  When  the  turn  of  the  Hebrew  soldiers 
came  in  this  work,  they  absolutely  refused  to  do  it.  Severe 
punishments  were  inflicted  in  vain  j  they  insisted  upon  the 
prohibition  of  their  religion  to  assist  in  any  way  in  the 
building  of  a  Heathen  temple.  So  the  Laws  of  Moses  were 
then  understood.  The  soldiers  were  at  last  dismissed  from 
service  and  sent  to  their  respective  homes. 

9.    The  Death  of  Alexander. 

Alexander  died  suddenly  in  the  spring  of  the  year  323 
B.  c,  thirty-two  years  old.  Some  maintained  he  had  been 
poisoned,  and  others  naturally  believed  that  he  wasted 
away  by  excesses,  polygamy,  concubinage,  sodomy  and  or- 
gies of  the  worst  kind ;  he  died  the  death  of  a  vile  drunk- 
ard.    His  companion,  Hephestion,  had  died  the  same  death. 

10.    The  Family  of  Alexander  Extinguished  by 

Assassination. 

After  the  death  of  the  great  conqueror,  his  generals  set- 
tled the  royal  succession  upon  Aridaeus,  calling  him  Philip, 
who  was  the  idiotic  and  bastard  brother  of  Alexander,  and 
his  son  by  Roxana,  born  after  his  death,  called  Alexander 
Aegus.     Perdiccas  was  declared  regent,  or  governor  of  the 


48  JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS. 

kings.  The  vast  empire  was  divided  into  provinces,  each  of 
which  was  placed  under  a  governor  selected  from  Alexan- 
der's principal  men.  Their  duty  was  to  preserve  the  empire 
for  the  kings ;  but  their  object  was  to  become  independent 
kings  themselves,  which  initiated  a  period  of  treachery  and 
perpetual  warfare,  lasting  up  to  tlie  year  301  b.  c.  Perdic- 
cas,  the  governor  of  the  kings,  was  slain  by  his  own  men  in 
Egypt  (821  B.  c).  His  successor.  Antipater,  died  (319  b.  c), 
and  Polysperchon  took  his  place.  In  317  b.  c,  Oiympias, 
the  mother  of  Alexander,  seized  the  government  and  slew 
King  Philip,  his  wife  and  their  friends,  and  was  herself 
slain  the  next  year.  Now,  Alexander  Aegus  was  nominallji 
the  king.  But  in  the  year  310  b.  c,  the  same  year  when 
Epicur,  l)eing  thirty-two  years  of  age,  began  to  teach  his 
philosophy  at  Mytilene,  Cassander  slew  both  Alexander 
Aegus  and  his  mother,  Roxana,  and  proclaimed  himself 
king  of  Macedon.  The  same  year  the  son  of  Alexander, 
Hercules,  was  put  to  death,  and  shortly  after  (308)  Cleopa- 
tra, the  sister  of  Alexander,  was  also  killed ;  so  that  the 
whole  family,  except  one  of  Alexander's  sisters,  was  exter- 
minated. 

11.     The  Governors  of  the  Empire. 

Among  the  governors  appointed  after  the  death  of  Alex- 
ander, the  following  only  interest  us  here:  (1)  Laomedox, 
the  Mytelenian,  governor  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  to  320 
b.  c.  (2)  Ptolemy  Lagi,  governor  and  afterward  king  of 
Egypt,  founder  of  the  Ptolemy  dynasty.  (3)  Seleucus,  ap- 
pohited  governor  of  Babylon  in  321  b.  c,  afterward  king  of 
Syria  and  Asia  to  the  Indus  River,  the  founder  of  the  Se- 
leucidan  dynasty.  (4)  Antigonus,  orignally  governor  of 
Pamphilia  and  other  provinces,  proclaimed  himself  and  his 
son  Demetrius,  in  306,  kings  of  Asia,  and  fell  in  battle  in 
301  b.  c,  and  his  son  Avas  slain  by  Seleucus  in  282  b.  c.  (5) 
EuMENES,  the  greatest  and  most  faithful  man  among  the  sur- 
viving warriors  of  Alexander,  was  betrayed  by  his  army  and 
slain  by  Antigonus  (315  B.C.).  The  wars,  confederations, 
treacheries  and  depredations  of  the  governors  after  the 
death  of  Alexander,  shook  all  foundations  and  undermined 
the  faith  of  the  then  civilized  world  in  Asia,  Europe  and 
Africa.  The  nations,  their  will,  liberty  and  rights,  had  come 
down  to  zero.  Military  chieftains,  supported  by  mercenary 
troops,  trampled  under  foot  cities  and  nations,  changing 
masters  after  every  battle,  and  those  masters  betrayed  one 
another  as  often  as  they  had  made  covenants. 


judea  under  european  rulers.  ^ 

12.     Fate  of  Palestine  and  the  Capture  of  Jerusalem. 

During  the  reign  of  Alexander,  and  under  Laomedon,  as 
governor  of  Syria,  it  appears  Palestine  enjoyed  peace  and  a 
rising  prosperity ;  for  no  complaints  of  any  kind  have  been 
chronicled,  and  the  name  of  Laomedon  is  not  even  men- 
tioned in  the  Hebrew  sources.  In  321  b.  c,  Perdiccas, 
marching  a  large  army  through  Palestine  into  Egypt,  the 
country  may  have  been  benetited  by  it,  because  the  He- 
brews were  as  faithful  to  the  heirs  of  Alexander  as  they  had 
been  to  him.  Perdiccas  having  been  slain  in  Egypt,  Ptol- 
emy invaded  Syria  by  his  general,  Xicanor,  who  defeated 
iind  slew  Laomedon,  while  Ptolemy  himself  invaded  the 
maritime  country  of  Palestine  and  Phoenicia.  The  He- 
brews offered  stout  resistance,  and  Ptolemy  would  have 
been  obliged  to  besiege  Jerusalem  much  longer  than  he  had 
time  to  spare,  had  he  not  taken  it  by  treachery  (6).  He 
•came  as  a  friend  on  the  Sabbath  day  to  offer  sacrifices,  but 
craftily  managed  to  possess  himself  of  the  city,  before  its 
inhabitants  discovered  his  real  designs.  He  took  a  large 
numljcr  of  Hebrew  captives  with  him  into  Egypt,  many  of 
whom  were  made  slaves,  while  others  were  given  lands  to 
settle  on.  So  Palestine  and  the  neighboring  countries  were 
annexed  to  Ptolemy's  province. 

13.     Palestine  Changing  Masters. 

In  the  year  315  b.  c,  after  the  death  of  Eumcnes,  Antigo- 
nus  became  master  of  Asia.  Seleucus  fled  into  Egypt,  and 
Ptolemy,  in  314,  was  obliged  to  retire  from  Palestine,  and 
leave  it  to  Antigonus.  He  retook  it  in  312,  but  had  to  re- 
store it  the  same  year  to  Antigonus,  in  whose  power  it  re- 
mained up  to  301  B.  c.  It  appears  that  Jerusalem,  like  sev- 
eral maritime  cities,  was  dismantled  by  Ptolemy  before  his 
retreat,  and  remained  in  a  defenseless  state  until  it  walls 
were  rebuilt  by  Simon  the  Just  (7).  No  trace  is  left  in  He- 
brew sources  of  the  government  of  Antigonus  except  his 
name,  which,  like  Alexander's,  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Hebrews  ;  and  shortly  after  his  death, one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent Hebrews  was  Antigonus  of  Sochu. 

14.     Emigration  to  Egypt. 

Between  320  and  314,  and  then  again  in  312  b.  c,  many 
Hebrews  emigrated  to  Egypt,  settling  in  Alexandria,  while 
some  of  them  were  intrusted  with  military  posts  to  guard 

(6)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xii.  1. 

(7)  Ben  Sirach,  chapter  50,  4. 


60  JUDEA  UNDER  EUROPEAN  RULERS, 

various  cities  on  account  of  their  acknowledged  fidelity. 
Among  the  soldiers  with  Ptolemy,  there  Avas  also  Meshul- 
1am,  an  expert  archer  and  horseman,  of  whom  Hecateus  (8) 
narrates  that  he  guided  a  party  through  the  wilderness. 
An  augur  accosted  them,  pointed  to  a  bird,  and  maintained 
that  if  that  bird  stopped  the  party  should,  but  if  the  bird 
went  onAvard,  the  party  should  proceed  also.  Meshullam 
shot  at  the  bird  and  killed  it,  maintaining  that  the  bird, 
knowing  nothing  concerning  its  own  fate,  could  not  possibly 
predict  that  of  others.  This  brief  anecdote  is  characteristic 
of  the  Hebrew's  aversion  to  superstition.  Hecateus  (9) 
also  narrates  that  among  the  HebrcAV  emigrants  there  was 
one  chief-priest,  Hezekiah,  Avho  was  learned,  eloquent,  and 
conversant  Avith  the  Greek.  He  had  Avith  him  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  and  expounded  them  to  the  Greeks  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that,  in  the  long  intercourse  in  Avar  and  peace 
Avith  Persians  and  Greeks,  and  especially  from  and  after  the 
time  of  Alexander,  the  HebrcAvs,  or  rather  the  learned 
among  them,  became  Avell  acquainted  Avith  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, so  that  Aristotle  could  also  converse  Avitli  a  HebrcAV, 
and  confess  that  he  and  other  philosophers  had  learned 
much  of  him.  Therefore,  HebreAA\s  could  easily  emigrate  to 
Egypt  and  fraternize  with  the  Macedonians. 

15.     Final  Partition  of  the  Empire. 

In  the  year  302  b.  c,  four  of  the  ucaa^  kings,  Adz. :  Seleu- 
cus,  Ptoleni}^,  Cassander  and  Lysimachus,  conspired  against 
Antigonus  and  his  son,  Demetrius,  and  succeeded  the  next 
year  in  overthroAving  and  slaying  the  aged  Antigonus.  Noav 
the  empire  of  Alexander  Avas  finally  divided,  so  that  Cas- 
sander and  Lysimachus  divided  among  themseh'es  the  Eu- 
ropean portion  of  the  empire,  Seleucus  received  Asia  to  the 
Indus  River,  and  Ptolemy  Egypt,  Lybia,  Arabia,  CcElosyria 
and  Palestine.  This  last  partition  brought  Palestine  per- 
manently under  the  poAver  of  Egyptian  rulers. 

16.     The  Seleucidan  Era. 

Seleucus  had  been  appointed  gOA'ernor  of  Babylon  in  321, 
fled  before  Antigonus  into  Egypt  in  315,  and  returned  in 
312  B.  c.  This  year  Avas  made  the  beginning  of  the  Seleuci- 
dan Era,  except  Avith  the  Babylonians,  Avho  commenced  it 

(8)  Josephus'  Contra  Apion  i.  22.  Hecateus  of  Abdera  was  a 
philosopher  and  statesman  in  the  time  of  Alexander  and  Ptolemy 
Lagi. 

(9)  Josephus'  Ibid. 


JUDEA   UNDER    EUROPEAN    RULERS.  51 

311  B.  c.     It  was  in  general  use  both  in  Asia  and  Europe  to 
the  eleventh  century,  a.  c. 

17.     State  of  the  Hebrews,  300  b.  c. 

The  State  of  the  Hebrews  at  the  close  of  this  turbulent 
third  of  a  century  was  decidedly  improved.  The  temple 
service  was  not  interrupted  for  a  day  by  the  inroads  of 
Greek  idolatry  in  Asia.  The  succession  of  high  priests  Avas 
legitimate,  from  lather  to  son.  Jaddua  died  321  b.  c.  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Onias  {Elhanan),  who  remained 
in  office  to  the  year  300  b.  c,  when  he  died  and  Avas  suc- 
ceeded by  his  aged  son,  Simon,  surnamed  the  Just,  who 
appears  to  have  been  the  chief  of  the  nation  during  the 
whole  of  this  turbulent  time.  The  city  of  Jerusalem 
counted  120,000  inhabitants,  and  had  a  circumference  of 
fifty  furlongs  or  35,000  feet,  says  Hecateus,  which  appears 
to  have  included  the  A'arious  suburbs.  The  territory  of  Pal- 
estine, as  established  by  Alexander,  extended  north  to  be- 
yond 33°  North  Latitude  and  south  to  nearly  31°  North  Lat- 
itude, Avith  the  Idumeans  in  the  south-eastern  corner,  and  a 
HebrcAv  population  of  perhaps  tAvo  millions,  protected  by 
seA'eral  fortified  cities,  and  in  possession  of  one  city  on  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  Joppe.  The  tAvo  great  powers  noAv  ex- 
isting, Egypt  and  Syria,  AA'ere  Ijoth  A^ery  friendly  to  the  He- 
brews. Ptolemy  also  treated  them  Avell  in  Egypt.  Seleucus 
treated  them  no  less  generoush'.  In  the  many  cities  which 
he  built,  and  also  in  Antiochj'^on  the  Orontes  River,  Avhich 
he  built  on  the  spot  of  the  ancient  Pdblah  (10)  and  made  his 
capital,  and  of  Avhich  Daphne  Avas  a  suburb,  he  planted  He- 
brcAvs  from  the  East,  and  gave  them  equal  rights  Avith  the 
Macedonians.  This  brought  the  Hebrews  from  the  distant 
East  again,  and  in  large  numbers,  to  Syria  and  Asia  Minor, 
and  in  direct  contact  Avith  the  Greeks.  The  Samaritans  and 
Idumeans  could  no  longer  molest  the  HebrcAvs.  The  for- 
mer had  been  disarmed^by  Alexander,  and  noAV  emigrated 
to  Egypt  in  large  numbers  ;  and  the  latter  had  been  en- 
feebled by  Antigonus.  No  change  in  the  internal  goA-ern- 
ment  of  the  Hebrews  had  taken  place.  They  maintained 
their  freedom  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  and  public  instruction,  paid  tribute  to 
Ptolemy  as  they  did  to  Persia,  and  left  to  the  king  the  mili- 
tary power  and  the  protection  of  the  country. 

(10)     Sanhedrin  96  h. 


52  PALESTINE    UNDEK    EGYPTIAN   KINGS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Palestine   Under  Egyptian  Kings. 


to 

284  B. 

246  " 

221  '' 

204  " 

180  " 

145  " 

1.     Kings  of  Egypt. 

All  kings  of  Egypt  after  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Lagus, 
whom  the  Rhodians  surnamed  Soter  the  Savior,  up  to  its 
annexation  to  Rome,  were  called  Ptolemy.  The  Ptolemys 
of  this  period  were  : 

1.  Ptolemy  Soter,        -        -        to   284  b.  c. 

2.  Ptolemy  Philadelphus, 

3.  Ptolemy  Euergetes, 

4.  Ptolemy  Philopator,  - 

5.  Ptolemy  Epiphanes, 

6.  Ptolemy  Philometor, 

Their  capital  was  Alexandria.  They  were  unlimited 
monarchs  and  gods.  Besides  Philopator,  all  of  them  were 
favorably  inclined  to  the  Hebrews,  whose  rights  and  privi- 
leges they  respected,  and  interfered  not  with  their  internal 
development  in  religion,  public  instruction  and  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  either  in  Palestine  or  outside  thereof. 
The  Hebrews  were  a  State  in  the  State  of  the  Ptolemys,  to 
which  they  were  bound  by  the  tribute  they  paid,  and  the 
military  service  which  they  rendered.  These  kings  Grecized 
Egypt  in  religion,  art,  science  and  social  forms,  and  gave 
the  impulse  to  a  new  state  of  science,  especially  in  mathe- 
matics, mechanics,  astronomy,  cosmology,  geography,  criti- 
cism, grammar  and  eclectic  philosophy,  as  also  in  botany 
and  zoology.  Euclid  was  born  in  Alexandria  (about  300 
B.  c),  and  taught  mathematics  in  its  famous  school.  At 
the  same  time  Archimedes  (born  287  b.  c.)  lived  and  taught 
at  Syracuse.     Great  expeditions  by  land  and  sea  were  under- 


PALESTINE    UNDER    EGYPTIAN    KINGS.  53 

taken  in  the  interest  of  science.  The  great  canal,  connect- 
ing the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea,  was  rebuilt,  and  one  for  large 
ships  added.  Observatories  and  colossal  lighthouses  were 
erected  like  that  of  Pharus.  Alexandria  was  the  cen- 
ter of  commerce  and  science.  There  were  the  Serapeuni, 
the  Museum  and  the  Great  Library  at  Bruchium  and  Se- 
rapeuni, which  Ptolemy  Soter  started.  In  the  museum  a 
number  of  learned  men  were  supported  by  the  king  to  dis- 
cuss the  sciences  and  to  advance  them.  So  while  philoso- 
phy, poetry,  the  fine  arts,  virtue,  honesty,  purity,  freedom 
and  rehgion  were  rapidly  declining,  commerce,  wealth,  sci- 
ence and  the  mechanical  arts  just  as  rapidly  advanced  and 
shed  their  luster  over  all  empires  of  antiquity,  so  that  we 
still  largely  subsist  on  the  sciences  built  up  in  Alexandria. 

2.     Simon  the  Just. 

The  Hebrews  of  Palestine  intimately  connected  with 
Egypt  and  in  constant  communication  with  their  brethren 
in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  soon  felt  the  Grecizing  influence 
and  the  approach  of  the  prevailing  corruption.  Simon  the 
Just,  who  was  a  great  priest  and  a  wise  governor,  had  made 
it  his  motto  :  "  The  world  stands  upon  three  things  :  the 
Law,  worship  and  charity  "  {Ahoth  i.  2) ;  the  Law  to  govern 
the  land  in  justice  and  equity;  the  worship  to  connect  it 
with  God  and  virtue  ;  and  charity  to  unite  the  human  fam- 
ily. He  repaired  the  temple,  now  over  200  years  old,  added 
to  its  fortifications  and  enlarged  its  reservoir.  He  repaired 
the  walls  of  -Jerusalem  and  re-fortified  it,  and  was  consid- 
ered the  last  of  the  great  and  saintly  high  priests  (1),  as  he 
was  the  last  president  of  the  Great  Synod.  He  enforced 
the  laws  of  Levitical  cleanness  as  Ezra  did,  and,  like  him, 
made  the  sacrifice  of  the  Red  Heifer  (or  two,  Parah  iii.  5), 
to  obtain  its  ashes  of  purification  ;  still  he  opposed  the  ascetic 
practices  of  the  Nazarites  (2),  and  but  once  ate  of  a  Nazarite 
sacrifice  (3).  Li  after  times  this  Simon  became  almost 
mythical  (4),  and  the  myths  concerning  him  show  that  he 
was  considered  the  last  high  j^riest  in  whom  learning,  piety, 


(1)  Ben  Sira  1.;  Josephus'  Antiquities  xii.  ii.  5  and  iv.  1 ;  and 
Aboth  i.  2. 

(2)  Numbers  vi. 

(3)  Tosephta  in  Nazir  iv.  and  Yerushalmi  ibid  i.  6. 

(4)  Yerushalmi  in  Yoma\.  3  (and  Tosephta  ii.)  ;  vi.  3;  Ibid  in  So- 
tah  ix.  14  ;  and  Tosephta  Ibid  xiii.  In  Yoma  vi.  3,  a  quarrel  between 
Simon  and  his  brother,  Onias,  is  noticed,  wliich  occasioned  tlie  latter 
to  retire  into  Egypt,  and  to  build  an  altar  there. 


54  PALESTINE    UNDER    EGYPTIAN    KINGS. 

patriotism  and  statesmanship  were  united.     After  him  the 
decline  of  this  period  begins. 

3.     Close  of  the  Prophetical  Canon. 

In  the  time  of  Simon  the  Just,  the  Great  Synod  estab- 
lished the  Prophetical  Canon  by  taking  the  Post-Mosaic 
history  from  the  Book  of  Ezra,  and  by  authenticating  and 
transcribing  in  the  square  Hebrew  letters  the  ancient  pro- 
phetical orations  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel  and  the  Twelve 
Minor  Prophets.  This  was  done  to  give  authority  to  those 
books,  to  introduce  them  for  public  readings  in  the  syn- 
agogues, and  to  give  them  authority  and  circulation  among 
the  people.  In  all  public  readings,  however,  the  Law  had 
the  precedence,  a  section  from  the  Prophets  closed  the  ex- 
ercise, and  was,  therefore,  called  Haphtorali^  the  closing 
exercise  (5).  The  order  of  the  prophetical  })ooks  was  Joshua, 
Judges,  Samuel,  Kings,  Jeremiah,  Hezekiah,  Isaiah  and  the 
Twelve  Minor  Prophets,  beginning  with  Hosea  and  closing 
with  Malachi  (6).  The  Macedonian  invasion  and  Avars  car- 
ried into  Asia  with  the  Greek  culture  and  idolatry,  a  moral 
corruption,  against  which  the  powerful  words  of  the  ancient 
prophets  must  have  been  considered  most  efl'ective.  There- 
fore, the  fourteenth  chapter  Avas  added  to  the  Book  of 
Zachariah.  This  chapter  Avas  the  speech  of  one  of  the  last 
prophets  Avho  had  seen  the  wars  of  Alexander  and  his  suc- 
cessors, and  the  migration  of  the  Hebrews  to  Egypt.  In 
tliat  tumultuous  time,  he  predicts  the  final  triumph  of 
Monotheism  and  threatens  all  transgressors  Avith  the 
divine  vengeance,  also  those  of  Egypt,  Avho  Avould  not 
come  at  least  once  a  year  to  Jerusalem  to  Avorship  the  Lord 
of  Hosts  in  his  holy  temple.  Those  men  of  the  Great 
Synod  closed  the  Prophetical  Canon  Avith  the  impressive 
admonition  :  "  Remember  the  LaAV  of  Moses,  my  servant, 
Avhich  I  have  commanded  him  at  Horeb  for  all  Israel  (also 
those  in  foreign  lands),  ordinances  and  statutes.  Behold,  I 
send  you  Elijah,  the  Prophet  (men  zealous,  bold,  patriotic 
and  godly  like  him),  before  the  coming  of  the  great  and  tre- 
mendous day  of  Jehovah  (to  crush  Avickedness,  corruption 
and  idolatry) :  and  he  shall  bring  back  the  heart  of  the 
fathers  to  their  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to 
their  fathers,  that  I  smite  not  the  land  Avith  destruction  " 
(the  rising  generation  having  already  been  infatuated  with 
Grecian  frivolity  and  laxity  of  morals). 

(5)  See  Rapaport's  E<'ech  Mil.i.n,  Art.  i.  N")t3QK. 

(6)  Baba  Bathra  13  b  and  14  a. 


palestine  under  egyptian  kings.  55 

4.     The  Origin  of  the  Septuagint. 

Simon  the  Just  was  dead  (292  b.  c),  his  son,  Onias,  was 
a  minor,  and  so  Eleazar,  the  brother  of  Simon,  ascended  to 
the  high  priesthood.  Two  great  events  in  the  history  of 
the  Hebrews  took  place  under  this  man's  administration : 
the  estabHshment  of  the  Sanhedrin  and  the  Greek  transla- 
tion of  the  Pentateuch.  All  ancient  testimony  concerning 
a  Greek  translation  of  the  Pentateuch  (7)  agrees  to  establish 
the  fact  that  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  advised  by  his  learned 
librarian,  Demetrius  Phalerus,  desired  a  Greek  translation 
of  the  Laws  of  Closes  for  the  great  library.  Aside  from  all 
religious  and  literary  standpoints,  an  intelligent  king  must 
have  felt  the  necessity  of  possessing,  in  his  own  language, 
the  laws  which  governed  so  large  and  influential  a  portion 
of  the  population  under  his  scepter.  Therefore,  he  obtained 
authorized  translators  from  Palestine,  appointed  by  the 
high  priest  Eleazar.  It  having  been  maintained  that  there 
were  seventy-two  of  those  translators,  the  translation  was 
called  the  Septuagint,  to  Avhich,  in  aftertimes,  translations 
of  the  Pro})hets,  Hagiograpli}^  and  the  Apocrypha  were 
added,  and  the  Avhole  collection  retained  the  name  of  Septua- 
gint. Tlie  copy  of  the  Laws  of  Moses  as  translated  for  Ptol- 
emy has  been  lost,  and  the  Septuagint  extant  shows  in  some 
passages  translations  from  manuscripts  or  traditional  read- 
ings, varying  from  the  authenticated  copy  of  Ezra  and  the 
Great  Synod  (8).  The  Hebrews  of  Egypt,  at  the  time  of 
Philadelphus,  had  no  need  yet  of  a  translated  Pentateuch, 
nor  did  Aristobul,  in  the  time  of  Philometor,  use  it ;  there- 
fore, the  Septuagint  was  not  protected  against  interpola- 
tions with  the  same -religious  zeal  as  was  the  copy  of  Ezra 
in  the  hand  of  the  priests,  Levites  and  Scribes,  which  was 
read  publicly  in  the  temple,  synagogues  and  schools,  where 
every  change,  however  slight,  would  have  been  noticed. 
When  the  Egyptian  Hebrews  began  to  use  the  Septuagint  in 
place  of  the  original,  it  had  already  assumed  its  extant  form. 

5.     The  Philosophy  of   Palestine   Carried   into  Egypt. 

Every  religious  reformation  in  history  begins  with  a  new 
translation  of  the  Bible.     This  was  also  the  case  with  the 


(7)  Aristeas,  in  his  letter;  Aristobul,  the  founder  of  the  Alexan- 
drian philosophy  of  religion  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philometor, 
Philo,  Josephus,  Eusebius,  Clemens,  Hyronimus  and  the  Talmud. 

(8)  See  August  Ferdinand  Daehne's  Geschichtliche  Darstellung 
der  juedish-alexandrinischen  Religions-Philosophie  ;  Dr.  Z.  Frankel's 
Vorstudien  zu  der  Septuagint ;  Dr.  Abraham  Geiger's  TJhrschrift  und 
Uebersetzungen  der  Bibel ;  Zunz,  Herzfeld,  Graetz,  Jost  and  Eaphael. 


56  PALESTINE    UNDER   EGYPTIAN    KINGS. 

Septuagint,  which  carried  the  elements  of  the  Palestineart 
philosophy  into  Egypt  and  disclosed  it  to  the  Greeks.  That 
the  HebreVs  had  a  philosophy  of  their  own,  admits  of  no 
doubt.  That  they,  from  and  after  Ezra,  philosophized,  is 
evident  from  the  Hebrew  literature  of  the  Medo-Persian 
Period,  which  contains  all  the  elements  of  philosophy  trace- 
able in  the  Septuagint.  The  translators  made  some  inten- 
tional changes  (9),  mostly  directed  against  Polytheism,  and 
could  not  avoid  carrying  into  their  work  the  philosophical 
views  of  their  age  and  country,  as  most  all  translators  in- 
variably do.  The  development  of  this  new  philosophy  is  to 
be  noticed  hereafter. 

G.     Ptolemy's  Gifts  to  the  High  Priest. 

Aristeas  and  Josephus  describe  royal  gifts  sent  by  Ptol- 
emy to  the  high  priest,  and  the  epistles  of  both  on  this  oc- 
casion. Remarkable  among  those  gifts  was  a  golden  table 
of  excellent  workmanship,  and  two  cisterns  of  gold,  both  of 
which  are  so  minutely  described  by  Josephus  that  he  must 
have  seen  them  (10),  and  this  is  no  mean  evidence  in  estab- 
lishing the  fact  that  the  Greek  version  of  the  Pentateuch 
was  made  by  order  of  the  king. 

7.     Hebrews  Freed  from  Slavery. 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus  emancipated  all  Hebrew  slaves,. 
and  paid  for  them  a  ransom  of  460  talents  ;  and  he,  as  well 
as  his  son  and  successor,  always  remained  a  patron  and 
friend  of  the  Hebrews.  The  generosity  of  this  Ptolemy  has 
been  lauded  by  his  biographers,  and  his  wealth  was  prodig- 
ious. He  is  reported  to  have  left  in  the  treasury  after  his 
death,  seven  hundred  and  forty  thousand  Egyptian  talents. 
The  Egyptian  talent  being  $3,852,  one-fifth  more  than  the 
Attic,  the  whole  of  his  cash  wealth  would  have  amounted 
to  $2,840,480,000.  Jewish  history  gratefully  mentions  Phil- 
adelphus among  the  Heathen  benefactors  of  Israel.  He,  in 
connection  with  Demetrius  Phalerus,  by  the  Greek  version 
of  the  Laws  of  Moses,  opened  a  new  phase  of  culture  ;  the 
Heathens  of  the  Greek  tongue  became  acquainted  with  the 
Hel)rew's  Bible,  and  this  was  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
Heathenism  in  those  countries. 


(9)  Meguillah  ix.,  fifteen  siich  changes  are  noticed.  Yerushalmi 
ibid  notices  thirteen;  so  also  in  Mechilta.  Characteristic  is  the  change 
of  n3J~iX,  "the  hare,"  among  the  unclean  animals,  which  they  re- 
placed l.iy  other  words  on  account  of  Lagus,  "  hare,"  the  grandfather 
of  Philadelphus. 

(10)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xii.  ii.  9  and  10. 


palestine  under  egyptian  kings.  57 

8.     The  Cities  Built. 

Philadelphus  built  many  cities  and  temples,  and  was 
as  active  in  advancing  the  interests  of  commerce  as  that 
of  literature  and  science.  He  turned  the  course  of  trade 
from  Tyre  to  Alexandria  by  two  new  cities  on  the  Red  Sea, 
Berenise  and  Myon  Hormus,  connected  by  a  highway 
through  the  wilderness,  with  Coptus  on  the  Nile.  In  Pal- 
estine also,  he  built  a  port  near  the  ancient  Acco,  on  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  above  Mt.  Carmel,  which  was  called 
Ptolemais.  West  of  the  Jordan  he  rebuilt  the  ancient  Kab- 
bah of  Amnion,  and  called  it  Philadelphia. 

9.     Origin  of  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  origin  of  the  Synedrion,  Sjaihedrion,  or  Sanhedrin, 
consisting  of  seventy  or  seventy-two  members,  replacing 
the  Great  Synod,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  members,  oc- 
curred soon  after  the  year  292  b.  c,  under  the  administra- 
tion of  the  high  priest  Eleazar.  In  support  of  this  fact, 
the  following  points  must  be  taken  into  consideration  : 

The  Great  Synod  closed  its  existence,  with  Simon  the 
Just,  before  292  b.  c.  {Ahoth  i.  2).  Josephus,  the  Mishna 
and  all  other  sources  agree  that  Simon  1.  was  the  high 
priest  who  was  called  the  Just. 

The  Laws  of  Moses,  together  with  the  enactments  and 
institutions  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  were  the  inviolable  laws 
of  the  land ;  these  laws,  however,  could  not  be  enforced 
without  a  supreme  and  sovereign  council  at  the  head  of 
the  commonwealth  (11). 

In  the  rabbinical  sources,  the  perpetual  existence  of  this 
sovereign  council  is  everywhere  taken  for  granted ;  in  Jo- 
sephus and  the  Books  of  the  Maccabees,  it  is  mentioned 
wherever  occasion  offers,  previous  to  and  during  the  As- 
monean  revolution  (12). 

An  interregnum  between  the  Great  Synod  and  the  San- 
hedrin could  have  been  brought  about  only  by  a  violent 
political  eruption,  or  by  a  despotic  act  of  one  of  the  kings 
of  Egypt ;  neither  of  which  did  take  place  from  300  to  200 
B.  c,  while  Antiochus  the  Great,  in  203  b.  c,  already  grants 
privileges  to  the  Senate  of  the  Hebrews  (-Josephus'  Ant.  xii. 
iii.  3). 

It  is  evident  that  the  body  highest  in  authority  among 

(11)  Exodus  iii.  16;  iv.  29;  xxiv.  1,  9;  Numbers  xi.  16;  Deuter. 
xvii.  8. 

(12)  Josephus'  Antiquit.  xii.  iii.  .3;  and  xii.  iv.  11  ,  II.  Maccabees 
iv.  44  ;  Ibid  xiv.  37  ;  III.  Maccabees  i.  8, 


58  PALESTINE    UNDER    EGYPTIAN   KINGS. 

the  Hebrews,  at  tlie  time  of  the  high  priest  Eleazar,  con- 
sisted of  seventy-two  men,  as  Aristeas,  Philo  and  Josephus 
agree  that  seventy-two  translators,  "  six  of  every  tribe," 
were  sent  to  Philadelphus  by  Eleazar.  Had  the  body  hold- 
ing the  highest  authority  been  composed  of  a  larger  num- 
ber of  men,  Eleazar  would  certainly  have  sent  a  correspond- 
ing number  of  translators.  If  the  Aristeas  letter  be  con- 
sidered spurious,  it  could  not  be  supposed  that  Josephus 
would  have  adopted  the  phrase,  "  six  of  every  tribe,"  if  he 
had  not  known  that  in  the  time  of  Eleazar  the  geograph- 
ical tribe  division  and  the  supreme  body  of  seventy-two 
members  existed. 

In  the  Mishna,  the  simultaneous  existence  of  the  San- 
hedrin  and  tlic  twelve  tribes  division  is  always  presupposed 
(13),  althougli  this  distinction  was  soon  forgotten  in  foreign 
lands,  except  in  Mesopotamia  (14).  Perea  and  Galilee,  the 
most  populous  provinces  of  Palestine,  were  certainly  inhab- 
ited by  people  of  the  ten  tribes,  who  never  left  their  original 
homes,  and  those  who  came  back  from  the  exile  to  claim 
their  properties.  Their  only  title  was  vested  in  their  gene- 
alogies ;  hence  every  land  holder  an3diow  was  obliged  to  up- 
hold his  genealogy,  and  this  preserved  the  geographical 
tribe  divisions  (15). 

When  Alexander  added  Samaria,  and  with  it  Perea  and 
Galilee,  to  Judea,  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  were  re-united 
again,  and  the  Great  Synod  could  exist  no  longer,  because 
it  consisted'  exclusively  of  the  aristocracy  of  Juda,  Benja- 
min and  Levi.  It  had  to  be  replaced  by  the  old  Council  of 
Elders,  "  six  of  each  tribe,"  which  was  done  in  the  time  of 
the  high  priest  Eleazar ;  and  this  Council  of  Elders  re- 
ceived the  Greek  name  of  Synedrion  or  Sanhedrin. 

In  memory  of  this  re-enfranchisement  of  all  Hebrews  in 
the  land  and  their  perfect  equalization,  the  Feast  of  Xy- 
lophory,  on  the  Fifteenth  day  of  Ab,  was  introduced  and 
kept  to  the  last  days  of  this  commonwealth  (Wars  II.,  xvii. 
6)  as  the  principal  feast  of  that  kind.  The  institution  was 
established  by  Nehemiah  (Nehem.  x.  35),  and  the  privilege 
of  bringing  the  wood  for  the  altar  was  claimed  by  certain 
families  of  Juda,  Benjamin  and  Levi  (Mishna  Taanith  iv. 
5) ;  except  the  Fifteenth  Day  of  Ab,  which  was  Xylophory 

(13)  Sanhedrin  i.  5  ;  Horioth  i.  5. 

(14)  Berachoth,  16  a  :  "  We  know  not  whether  we  descend  from 
Reuben  or  from  Simeon." 

(15)  I.  Chronicles  ix.  1  ;  Ezra  ii.  and  Nehemiah  vii.;  Mishnah  A'id- 
duRhrn  iv.  1.  According  to  R.  Juda  (  Yerushalmi  Ibid),  those  remain- 
ing between  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  also  kept  intact  their  genealogy. 


PALESTINE    UNDER   EGYPTIAN   KINGS.  59 

{Korhan  Ezim)  for  all,  especially  for  those  families  who 
brought  wood  to  Jerusalem,  when  Ptolemy  Soter's  invading 
army  (or  the  Antigonus  invasion  in  296  b.  c.)  prevented  the 
pilgrims  from  doing  so.  That  feast  was  of  special  import- 
iince,  "  Because  on  that  day  the  Tribes  were  permitted  to 
come  one  into  the  other  "  (16).  This  certainly  refers  to  the 
emancipation  of  Perea  and  Galilee,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  Sanhedrin  was  established. 

10.     Organization  of  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  Sanhedrin,  after  it  had  been  convoked  by  the  chief- 
magistrate  of  the  land,  met  daily  (Sabbaths  and  holidays 
excepted)  in  the  temple,  in  the  hall  called  Lishchath  Ilag- 
£azith.  Twenty-three  members  made  a  quorum.  The 
Senators  {Zekenim)  sat  in  a  hollow  semi-circle,  with  the 
presiding  officer  in  the  center,  and  three  rows  of  assessors 
before  them.  The  President  was  called  Nassi,  "jjrince," 
afterward  Heber  ;  the  Ab-Beth-Din,  "  Chief-Justice,"  was 
next  to  him  in  rank.  Two  scribes,  the  Hazan,  "  Sergeant- 
at-Arms,"  the  Shamesh,  "  Warden,"  and  the  Methuvgamon^ 
^'  Orator,"  Avere  the  other  officers  of  that  body.  The  Hazan 
opened,  and  the  Methurgamon  closed,  the  sessions.  During 
this  entire  period,  the  high  priests  presided  over  the  San- 
hedrin, and  it  was,  therefore,  called  n''!5na  D'^HD  h^  in  n'3 
"The  High  Court  of  the  High  Priests."  The  high  priest, 
Eleazar,  was  its  first  President,  and  Antigonus  of  Sochu, 
was,  perhaps,  its  ffi'st  chief-justice.  This  high  priest,  in  after 
times,  was  famous  for  fabulous  wealth,  humility  and  learn- 
ing, and  was  called  Eleazar  Harsi ;  and  this  chief-justice 
b)ecame  the  founder  of  a  new  school.  The  manner  of  elect- 
ing or  aiDpointing  senators  is  unknown ;  in  after  times,  they 
were  appointed  by  ordination  and  promotion.  The  senators 
filled  vacancies  by  electing  candidates  who  had  received  the 
•ordination  and  had  been  promoted  from  court  to  court.  The 
Sanhedrin  was  the  highest  judiciary  and  legislative  author- 
ity in  the  Hebrew  commonwealth,  and  claimed  also  the 
right  of  appointing  the  high  priest,  declaring  war,  deciding 
the  controversies  of  tribes,  instituting  criminal  courts  for 
districts  or  cities,  called  Minor  Sanhedrin  of  Twenty-Three, 
and  establishing  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 

(16)  See  Meguillath  Taanithv.,  which  explains  itself  by  the  above 
paragraph ;  also  the  two  Talmuds,  Taanilk  28  and  Yerushahni  Ibid 
ix.  7. 


60  palestine  under  egyptian  kings. 

11.    The  School  of  Antigonus. 

The  traditional  material,  resulting  from  the  enactments 
and  decisions  of  the  Great  Synod  from  455  to  292  b.  c,  must 
have  increased  considerably  in  bulk  and  importance.  It 
was  part  of  the  law  of  the  land,  the  jurisprudence  and  the- 
ology of  the  age.  The  highest  authority  for  the  knowledge 
of  the  traditions,  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  nation,  wa& 
the  Sanhedrin,  and  in  that  body  the  Nassi  and  Ab-Beth- 
DiN.  But  after  Simon  the  Just,  none  of  the  high  priests  or 
any  other  person  of  political  authority  was  distinguished 
for  that  species  of  learning ;  so  that  it  is  maintained  in  the 
history  of  the  traditions  that  the  prophets  delivered  it  to 
the  Great  Synod,  this  Synod  to  Simon  the  Just,  he  to  An- 
tigonus, of  Sochu,  and  both  to  Jose  b.  Joezer,  who  lived  to 
162  B.  c,  and  Antigonus  died  263  b.  c.  It  is  evident,  there- 
fore, that  the  traditions  were  transmitted  in  the  school  of 
which  Antigonus  was  the  founder.  The  scribes  looked  not 
to  the  Sanhedrin  for  the  highest  authority  in  the  traditions; 
the  school  of  Antigonus  assumed  that  authority  (17).  In 
this  school,  John,  and  his  son,  Mattathia,  the  Asmoneans^ 
Jose  b.  Joezer  and  Jose  b.  John  (perhaps  a  brother  of  Matta- 
thia), were  the  most  prominent  bearers  of  the  traditions 
(18).  Therefore,  Avhen  the  rebellion  broke  out  and  the  party 
of  the  traditions  rose  against  the  Grecizing  government 
party,  Jose  b.  Joezer  and  his  colleague  appear  as  the  expo- 
nent's of  the  traditions  and  the  heads  de  jure  of  the  San- 
hedrin, although  they  had  no  political  authority  and  were 
called  ScHOLASTS  in  the  history  of  the  traditions. 

12.     The  Rise  of  Hassidim  and  Grecians. 

In  the  school  of  Antigonus,  another  tradition  maintains, 
a  party  rose  that  denied  future  reward  and  punishment; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  parties  that  afterward 
fought  out  the  civil  war  had  their  origin  in  the  prevailmg 
circumstances  and  the  school  of  Antigonus,  the  center  ot 


fl7)  This  is  stated  plainly  in  Yervshnlmi  Potah  ix.  10,  viz:  That 
all  heads  of  the  Sanhedrin  after  Jose  b.  Joezer  down  to  K  Akiba 
were  no  scholasts  (m^3L*'S')  oecause  thev  were  also  recognized  as  the- 
poHtical  heads  of  the  nation  (mDJiQ  '\\y6'^'^-  But  Jose  b.  Joezer,  and. 
his  predecessors  up  to  Simon  the  Just  and  R.  Akiba  and  his  success- 
ors, who  possessed  no  political  authority,  were  scholasts  (m7DK>K), 
the  heads  of  schools.  This  includes,  also,  Antigonus,  of  Sochu,  as 
the  head  of  a  school,  noticed,  also,  elsewhere  in  the  Traditions. 
Themurah  b5  b 

(18)  Yuchasin,  Shalsheleth  Hackabala  and  Seder  Haddoroth  I., 
Art.  Jochanan,  father  of  Mattathia,  Antigonus  and  Jose  b.  Joezer. 


PALESTINE    UNDER    EGYPTIAN   KINGS.  61 

the  traditions.  That  teacher  is  reported  to  have  said  :  "  Be 
ye  not  Hke  servants  Avho  attend  to  the  master  for  the  sake 
of  receiving  a  reward ;  but  be  3'e  like  servants  who  attend 
to  the  master,  not  for  the  sake  of  receiving  any  reward,  and 
let  the  fear  of  heaven  be  upon  you."  This  was  understood 
by  one  portion  of  his  disciples  to  be  a  denial  of  future  re- 
ward and  punishment.  This,  however,  was  only  a  link  in 
the  chain  of  a  new  creed  which  gradually  formed  in  the 
minds  of  Grecizing  Hebrews,  and  led  on  the  one  side  to 
apostacy  and  on  the  other  to  the  rebellion  of  the  Asmoneans. 
Jerusalem  and  its  temple  had  become  the  center  for  mil- 
lions of  Hebrews  in  the  Egyptian  and  Syrian  empires, 
and  in  consequence  thereof  the  wealth  of  nations  was 
poured  into  the  Hebrew  capital,  and  commerce  with  foreign 
countries  increased  rapidly.  Merchants  coming  in  contact 
with  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  and  going  with  Greeks  and 
Macedonians  to  the  distant  East  and  West,  were,  perhaps, 
the  first  to  Grecize  at  home.  The  men  in  power  by  royal 
appointments,  in  contact  with  courts  and  courtiers,  were 
naturally  Grecized,  and  exercised  that  influence  on  their 
fellow-citizens.  The  spirit  of  the  age  was  Grecian,  and  so 
was  the  aristocracy  in  general.  Gradually  those  Hebrews 
yielded  to  the  foreign  influences  and  attempted  to  combine 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  standpoints,  revelation  and  philoso- 
phy, absolutism  centering  in  the  king-god  and  freedom  cen- 
tering in  the  Law  of  Moses,  the  sensual  culte  of  the  beau- 
tiful and  the  traditional  worship  of  the  One  God,  frivolity 
and  earnestness,  laxity  and  austerity  of  morals.  The  pro- 
gress of  the  Grecian  party  pressed  the  national  Hebrews  to 
extreme  orthodoxy,  firm  adherence  to  the  laws  and  tradi- 
tions, and  the  exclusion  of  the  Greek  elements,  until  finally, 
two  distinct  parties,  with  well-defined  principles,  existed 
among  the  Hebrews,  viz. :  the  Hassidim,  "  the  law^-abiding 
men,"  also  called  nin""  'X"i'  "  the  worshipers  of  Jehovah  ;"  and 
the  Grecians,  or  Hellenists.  The  former  were  the  conserv- 
atives and  had  with  themselves  the  scribes  and  the  school 
of  Antigonus ;  and  the  latter  were  the  progressionists, 
backed  by  wealth,  State  power  and  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
Up  to  the  year  175  b.  c,  the  high  priest  and  Sanhedrin 
stood  between  those  two  parties  to  maintain  the  peace ;  but 
after  that  time  the  high  priest  also  embraced  the  cause  of 
the  Grecians,  which  brought  on  the  revolution. 

13.     The  Principles  of  the  Parties. 

The  principles  of  the  two  parties,  as  developed  to  the 
end  of  this  period,  were  the  following : 


62 


PALESTINE    UNDER   EGYPTIAN   KINGS. 


Hassidim. 

1.  Sinai,  Revelation,  the  Tho- 
KAH  is  the  supreme  guide  of  man 
and  society. 

2.  The  laws  and  customs  of 
Israel,  as  expounded  by  the 
proper  authorities,  prescribe  the 
duties  of  the  Israelite  ;  the  taxes 
and  the  military  service  belong 
to  the  king. 

3.  The  study  and  practice  of 
the  Law  is  the  highest  virtue. 

4.  Virtue  or  righteousness  is 
its  own  object,  independent  of 
any  happiness  it  may  or  may  not 
bring. 

5.  There  is  a  just  reward  or 
punishment  in  life  eternal. 


Grecians. 

1.  Wisdom  or  philosophy  is 
the  supreme  guide  of  man  and 
society. 

2.  The  king's  laws  and  decrees 
prescribe  the  duties  of  the  Is- 
raelite, outside  of  his  religious 
belief. 


3.  The  cultivation  of  wisdom 
is  the  highest  virtue. 

4.  The  object  of  virtue  or 
righteousness  is  pleasure  and 
happiness. 


5.    There  is  no  reward  and  no 
punishment  in  life  eternal. 

In  Palestine  the  parties  pressed  each  other  to  the  ex- 
tremes of  the  Asmonean  revolution.  In  Egypt,  many  of 
the  Hebrews  deserted  the  ranks  of  Israel  and  identified 
themselves  with  the  Macedonians  (19). 

14.    The  Davidian  Aristocracy  Revived. 

In  the  year  277  b.  c,  the  high  priest  Eleazar  died.  He 
was  succeeded  by  his  uncle,  Menasseh,  who  kept  this  holy 
office  to  the  year  250  b.  c,  and  yet  nothing  is  known  about 
him.  He  was  succeeded  by  Onias  II.,  the  son  of  Simon  the 
Just,  who  remained  in  office  from  250  to  218  b.  c,  and  his- 
tory has  nothing  to  record  of  him,  except  that  he  loved 
money,  and  in  his  old  age  was  indolent  and  careless.  He 
neglected  to  pay  the  annual  tax  of  twenty  talents  of  silver 
to  the  king.  Ptolemy  Euergetes  sent  an  ambassador  to 
Jerusalem  with  a  threatening  message.  Onias  did  not  care 
for  the  office,  and  adopted  no  measures  to  adjust  the  mat- 
ter. He  had  a  nephew,  Joseph,  whose  mother  was  the  sister 
of  Onias  (20),  and  whose  father,  Tobiah,  or  Tobias,  was  of 
the  House  of  David  (21).  He,  a  man  of  prudence  and  cour- 
age, offered  to  go  to  Alexandria  and  settle  the  matter  with 
the  king.     He  obtained  the  consent  of  the  people  and  high 

(19)  I.  Maccabees  i.  11,  43  ;  III.  Maccabees  i.  3  ;  vii.  10. 

(20)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xii.  iv.  2. 

(21)  Luke  iii.  24,  25;   Philo's  Brevarium:  Herzfeld's  GeschichUy 
d.  J.,  Vol.  L 


PALESTINE    UNDER   EGYPTIAN   KINGS.  63 

priest,  and  went  to  Alexandria.  By  gifts  and  shrewdness, 
he  succeeded,  over  many  competitors,  in  being  appointed 
collector  of  taxes  in  Phoenicia,CGelosyria  and  Palestine,  and 
went  back  to  Asia  with  two  thousand  soldiers  to  collect  the 
king's  taxes.  He  was  a  merciless  publican  to  many  a  city, 
especially  to  Askelon  and  Scythopolis,  but  remained  in  his 
office  for  twenty-two  years  (225  to  203),  till  Antiochus  the 
Great  conquered  Palestine,  and  became  yery  rich.  This, 
for  some  time,  reyiyed  the  power  of  the  Dayidians  in  Jeru- 
salem, which  had  beenoyercome  by  Nehemiah.  There  were 
now  two  political  powers  in  Jerusalem,  the  high  priest  and 
the  tax  collector,  whose  conflict  will  be  noticed  below'. 

15.      Antiochus  the  Great  Seizes  Palestine  and  Loses 

IT  Again. 

The  following  kings  reigned  in  Syria  before  this  time  : 

1.  Seleucus  Nicator  -        -       to  280  b.  c. 

2.  Antiochus  Soter      -         -        -   "    261  "    " 

3.  Antiochus  Theus  -        -       "    246  "    " 

4.  Seleucus  Callinicus  -        -    "    226  "    " 

5.  Seleucus  Ceraunus  -        -       "    223  "    " 

The  brother  of  this  last  Seleucus,  and  sixth  king  of 
Syria,  was  Antiochus  the  Great,  who  was  particularly  a 
friencl  and  benefactor  of  the  Hebrews.  In  219  and  218  b.  c, 
Antiochus  took  from  Ptolemy  Philopator  Coelosyria,  Phoe- 
nicia, Galilee,  Samaria  and  the  land  west  of  the  Jordan. 
The  Hebrews  had  suffered  much  during  the  two  je&rs'  war. 
The  next  year  Antiochus  had  advanced  as  far  as  Raphia, 
where  Philopator  defeated  him  and  retook  his  lost  provinces 
in  Asia.  In  Raphia,  a  heathenized  Hebrew,  Dositheus,  had 
saved  Philopator's  life  ;  besides,  after  his  victory,  an  embassy 
from  the  Sanhedrin  came  to  him  wath  congratulations  and 
gifts.  Therefore,  he  went  to  Jerusalem  and  sacrificed  to  the 
God  of  Israel  in  the  temple  when  Simon  II.  Avas  high  priest 
(22)  the  first  year,  as  his  sires  had  done  before  him. 

16.     Philopator  Discomfited  in  the  Temple, 

The  king,  having  for  the  first  time  seen  this  temple,  in- 
sisted upon  entering  its  sanctum  sanctorum.  All  repre- 
sentations and  supplications  were  in  vain  ;  he  insisted  upon 
satisfying  his  curiosity.  Neither  the  entreaty  of  the  priests 
and  elders  nor  the  lamentations  and  prayers  of  the  multi- 


(22)    III.  Maccabees  i. 


64  PALESTINE    UNDER    EGYPTIAN    KINGS. 

tude,  changed  his  resolution.  Philopator  entered  the  tem- 
ple, surrounded  by  his  friends  and  guards ;  but  no  sooner 
had  he  stepped  over  its  threshold  than  he  fell  helpless  to 
the  ground,  and  his  attendants  were  obliged  to  carry  him 
out  of  the  sanctuar}^ ;  and  thus  discomfited,  he  left  the 
city  with  threats  of  vengeance  on  his  lips. 

17.     Persecution  of  the  Egyptian  Hebrews. 

Philopator  having  returned  home,  resolved  upon  talcing 
vengeance  on  the  Egyptian  Hebrews,  all  of  whom  he  liad 
brought  to  Alexandria,  and  commanded  them  all  to  be  killed 
by  enraged  elephants.  They  Avere  saved,  however,  by  a  mira- 
cle, says  our  Egyptian  narrator  in  the  third  book  of  the 
Maccabees,  and  JPhilopator  became  a  friend  and  patron  of 
the  Hebrews  after  that,  although  they  did  not  love  him  nor 
his  successor,  and  soon  embraced  the  opportunity  to  de- 
monstrate their  displeasure. 

18.    Antiochus  the  Great  Seizes  Palestine  the  Second 

Time. 

In  the  year  204  b.  c,  having  lived  thirty-seven  years  of 
intemperance  and  debauchery,  Philopator  died,  and  left  his 
crown  to  his  son,  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  then  five  years  old. 
Antiochus  the  Great,  in  league  with  the  king  of  Macedon, 
made  war  upon  Egypt  with  the  intention  of  dividing  the 
kingdom  of  the  Ptolemys  between  himself  and  the  king  of 
Macedon.  He  marched  into  Coelosyria  and  Palestine  and 
occupied  them  in  203  and  202  b.  c.  After  he  had  beaten 
the  Egyptian  General,  Scopas,  in  the  north,  200  b.  c,  the 
Hebrews  invited  him  to  Jerusalem,  and  sul)mitted  the  king- 
dom to  him,  after  it  had  been  one  hundred  and  one  years  an 
Egyptian  province.  It  was  in  the  time  when  Scipio  had  de- 
feated Hannibal  in  Africa,  and  thus  closed  the  second  Punic 
war.  Hannibal  came  as  a  fugitive  to  Antiochus,  in  whose 
service  he  closed  his  eventful  life.  This  final  victory  of 
Antiochus  over  Egypt  was  also  a  victory  of  the  Hassidim 
over  the  Grecians  in  Palestine ;  for  the  concessions  made 
by  him  to  the  Hebrews  were  very  much  in  favor  of  the  Has- 
sidim, as  shall  be  narrated  in  the  next  chapter. 


PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN   RULERS.  65 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Palestine   Under  Syrian  Rulers. 


1.     Antiochus  Magnus,  a  Benefactor  of  the  Hebrews. 

Antiochiis  favored  the  Hebrews  because  they  had  em- 
braced his  cause  against  the  Egyptians,  received  and  treated 
him  well  in  Jerusalem,  and  assisted  him  in  expelling  the 
Egyi)tian  garrison.  He  admired  them  "  on  account  of  their 
piety  toward  God."  This  admiration  was  made  traditional  at 
the  Persian  court,  by  Cyrus,  and  among  tlie  ^Macedonian  rul- 
ers of  Egypt  and  Syria,  by  Alexander.  Palestine  had  suffered 
terribly  by  the  Egypto-Syrian  wars,  and  lately,  by  Philopa- 
tor's  cruelties  and  the  villainies  of  his  rapacious  general, 
Scopas.  Therefore,  Antiochus  settled  a  large  income  on  the 
temple,  granted  special  privileges  to  the  priests,  scribes  and 
the  senators,  and  provided  for  the  repair  of  the  temple  and 
its  cloisters.  He  freed  the  city  of  Jerusalem  for  three  suc- 
cessive years  from  taxes,  reduced  the  tribute  of  the  land 
by  one-third,  set  all  captive  Hebrews  free,  restored  to  them 
all  confiscated  property,  and  re-confirmed  their  rights  and 
privileges  to  live  according  to  their  own  laws.  When,  af- 
terward, Ptolemy  Epiphanes  was  given  half  of  the  income 
from  Palestine,  Antiochus  wrote  him  an  epistle,  informing 
him  of  these  privileges  granted  to  the  Hebrews  and  requiring 
him  to  respect  them  (1).  He  also  commanded  all  his  sul)- 
jects  that  none  should  go  in  the  temple  beyond  the  boun- 
dary line  established  In^  the  laws  of  the  Hebrews  (referring 
to  Philopator's  sacrilege);  that  no  carcass  or  hide  of  any 
unclean  animal  should  be  brought  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
and  no  such  animal  be  bred  up  there,  all  under  the  penalty 
of  three  thousand  drachmas  of  silver  (2).     He  placed  no 

(1)  Antiq.  xii.  iii.  3. 

(2)  It  was  also  prohibited,  afterward,  to  keep  a  dog  in  the  city  of 
Jerusalem. 


66  PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS. 

less  confidence  in  the  Hebrews  outside  of  Palestine.  When 
a  rebellion  broke  out  in  Lydia  and  Phrygia,  he  commanded 
two  thousand  Hebrew  families  from  Mesopotamia  and  Bal)y- 
lon  to  be  placed  in  those  countries,  j^roniising  them  the  I'ight 
to  live  according  to  their  own  laws,  land  for  their  husban(hy 
and  the  culture  of  wine,  material  support  to  start. and  the 
freedom  from  taxation  for  ten  years ;  because,  he  said  in  his 
epistle,  "■  they  will  be  well-disposed  guardians  of  our  posses- 
sions because  of  their  piet}^  toward  God,  and  because  I 
know  that  my  predecessors  have  borne  witness  to  them,, 
that  they  are  faithful,  and  with  alacrity  do  what  they  are 
desired  to  do"  (3). 

2.     A  Royal  Marriage. 

In  the  year  193  b.  c,  Antiochus  gave  in  marriage  his 
daughter,  Cleopatra,  to  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  then  seventeen 
years  old,  and  settled  upon  her  as  a  dowry,  half  of  the  in- 
come derived  from  the  provinces  of  Coelosyria  and  Palestine,, 
which,  nevertheless,  remained  de  faoto  Syrian  provinces. 

3.     Conflict  with  the  Eomans. 

The  Roman  power,  after  the  second  Punic  war,  made  it- 
self felt  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  Therefore,  already  in 
the  year  202  b.  c,  the  Egyptian  rulers  had  invoked  the 
protection  of  Rome  for  their  infant  king,  and  promised 
them  the  guardianship  and  the  regency  during  the  king's 
minority.  The  Romans  accepting  this  offer,  sent  ambassa- 
dors to  Philip,  king  of  Macedon,  and  to  Antiochus  the  Great, 
to  inform  them  of  this  fact.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
conflict  which  lasted  to  tlie  year  190  b.  c,  when,  under  the 
two  brothers,  Lucius  Scipio  and  Scipio  Africanus,  the  Ro- 
mans overthrew  the  army  of  Antiochus  in  the  battle  of 
Magnesia,  and  forced  him  to  accept  disgraceful  terms  ot 
peace,  with  the  loss  of  all  Asia  Minor  up  to  Mt.  Taurus,  and 
the  payment  of  500  talents  now,  2,500  more  on  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  peace  by  the  senate,  and  then  one  tliousand  tal- 
lents  every  year  for  the  next  twelve  years.  The  treaty  was 
ratified  in  the  year  189  b.  c.  Antiochus  outlived  this  catas- 
trophe to  187  B.  c,  when  he  was  slain  in  the  province  of 
Elymais  in  the  act  of  plundering  a  Bel  temple.  His  oldest 
son,  Seleucus,  succeeded  him  as  king  of  Syria,  and  was 
called  Seleucus  Philopator. 


(3)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xii.  iii.  4. 


palestine  under  syrian  rulers.  67 

4.     Hyrcan,  the  Son  of  the  Tax  Collector. 

Simon  II.  died  195  b.  c.  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Onias  III.,  as  high  priest.  Both  these  high  priests  are 
lauded  as  men  of  piety  and  patriotism  in  comparison  with 
their  successors.  But  the  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem  began 
to  be  ill-behaved  ;  many  of  them  were  selfish,  faithless  and, 
at  last,  treacherous.  The  demoralization  began  in  the  House 
of  David,  and  poisoned  also  the  family  of  Aaron.  The  tax 
collector,  Joseph,  son  of  Tol^ias,  who  was  of  the  House  of 
David,  reached  the  zenith  of  power  in  Jerusalem  by  birth, 
wealth,  position  and  the  indolence  of  the  high  priests.  He 
had  seven  sons  by  one  wife,  and  an  eighth,  Hyrcan,  be- 
gotten in  incest  with  his  niece.  He  grasped  the  moment- 
ous opportunity  when  Antiochus  was  dead,  and  the  queen 
of  Egypt  the  same  year  gave  birth  to  her  first  son  (after- 
ward called  Philometor),  to  secure  again  the  collectorship 
of  Palestine.  He  was  too  old  to  go,  like  other  courtiers,  to 
Alexandria  to  congratulate  the  king  and  queen.  His  seven 
sons  refused  to  go  on  that  mission ;  Hyrcan  only  would  un- 
dertake the  enterprise.  He  was  young,  shrewd,  intriguing 
and  bold,  and  succeeded  in  ingratiating  himself  with  the 
queen  and  the  king.  Instead  of  advancing  the  cause  of  his 
father,  he  obtained  for  himself  the  lucrative  appointment 
over  a  number  of  competitors,  and  squandered  one  thou- 
sand talents  of  his  father's  money.  His  brothers  were  en- 
raged at  his  conduct  and  success.  On  his  return  to  Jeru- 
salem, they  met  him  at  a  distance  outside  the  city  and  a 
fight  ensued.  Hyrcan  slew  two  of  his  brothers  and  several 
of  their  attendants,  and  went  on  to  Jerusalem.  Seeing 
himself  confronted  by  his  angry  father  and  surviving 
brothers,  who  had  the  support  of  the  Sanhedrin,  Hyrcan 
retired  with  his  men  to  the  southern  frontiers  beyond  Jor- 
dan, in  the  vicinity  of  Heshbon,  and  there  built  a  castle  be- 
tween rocks,  well  fortified,  and  laid  out  magnificent  gardens 
in  the  valley.  He  called  this  place  Tyre,  and  was  there 
outside  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Sanhedrin,  a  terror  to  the 
Arabs  up  to  175  b.  c,  when  he,  out  of  fear  of  the  power  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  committed  suicide,  leaving  his  pa- 
ternal heritage  in  the  temple  treasury  at  Jerusalem  (4). 

5.     The  Sons  op  Tobias. 

Onias  III.  regained  some  of  the  political  power  lost  by 
his  immediate  predecessors.     AVhen,  after  the  death  of  Jo- 

(4)    Josephus'  Antiq.  xii.  iv.;  II.  Maccabees  ill.  11. 


63  PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS. 

seph,  the  tax  collector,  his  sons,  called  the  Sons  of  Tobias, 
disputed  the  high  priest's  authority,  Onias,  supported  by 
the  Sanhedrin,  subdued  them  by  force  of  arms,  and  at  last 
ejected  them  from  the  city.  They  were  the  first  to  turn 
traitors  against  their  country  and  their  religion,  and  en- 
couraged Antiochus  E})iphanes  to  invade  Palestine  and  to 
apostatize  its  people  (5).  This  was  certainly  one  of  the 
causes  that  the  House  of  David,  with  its  dynastical  claims, 
disappeared  so  entirely  from  the  records  of  the  Hebrews, 
that  up  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  no  mention  is  made  of 
them  in  Palestine. 

6.     The  Spartans  and  the  Hebrews. 

The  fame  of  the  Hebrews,  by  the  channels  of  commerce, 
literature  and  migration,  had  reached  into  Greece,  and  the 
king  de  facto,  Aretus  or  Darius,  of  Lacedemonia,  sent  an 
ambassador,  Demotoles,  and  an  epistle  to  Onias  III.,  in 
Avhich  it  was  set  forth  how  the  discovery  had  been  made  by 
that  people  that  they  were  descendants  of  Abraham,  and 
therefore,  an  alliance  between  the  two  nations  was  proposed. 

7.    Heliodorus  Discomfited  in  the  Temple, 

King  Seleucus  was  well-disposed  toward  the  Hebrews. 
The  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem,  however,  continued  to  harass 
Onias  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  There  was  one,  Si- 
mon, a  Benjaminite,  who  was  one  of  the  officers  in  the  tem- 
ple. He  wanted  of  Onias  the  office  of  market  master, 
which  was  not  given  to  him,  and  Simon  turned  traitor.  He 
went  to  Appollonius,  the  governor  of  Coelosyria  and  Phoe- 
nicia, and  informed  him  that  the  treasury  of  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem  contained  an  enormous  sum  of  money.  Appol- 
lonius reported  it  to  the  king,  who  sent  his  treasurer,  Helio- 
dorus, to  investigate  the  matter.  He  came  stealthily  to 
Jerusalem  and  was  kindly  received  by  the  high  priest.  On 
communicating  to  him  the  object  of  his  visit,  he  was  told 
that  the  treasury  contained  no  more  than  400  talents  of 
silver  and  200  talents  of  gold,  which  was  there  mostly  for 
safe  keeping  for  widows  and  orphans,  and  some  of  which  be- 
longed to  Hyrcan  and  to  others.  Heliodorus  insisted  upon 
going  into  the  temple  and  inspecting  its  treasury.  All  pro- 
testations and  prayers  were  fruitless.  When  Heliodorus, 
followed  by  some  of  his  soldiers,  entered  the  temple  treas- 
ury, he  was  met  by  three  gigantic  men ;  one  on  horseback, 
in  golden  ornaments.      The  horse  reared,   came  down  on 


(5)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xii.  iv.  11,  and  v.  1 ;  Wars  1.  1.  1. 


PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS.  69 

Heliodorus,  threw  him  to  the  ground,  and  the  two  men 
chastised  him  severel}'.  Heliodorus  was  carried  away 
speechless,  and  his  men  were  stunned.  He  left  Jerusalem 
without  having  seen  the  temple  treasury.  Simon  main- 
tained there  was  nothing  supernatural  in  all  that ;  it  was 
all  the  contrivance  of  Onias,  who  was  a  traitor  to  the  king. 
So  Onias  had  two  sets  of  enemies  at  Antioch,  Simon  and 
the  Sons  of  Tobias.  They  had  their  followers  in  Jerusalem, 
who  would  continually  raise  disturbances,  and  it  came  to 
assassinations.  Onias,  dreading  the  probable  interference 
of  Appollonius,  and  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  his  worst  ene- 
mies and  traitors  were  his  own  brothers,  went  to  Antioch  to 
the  king  with  the  prayer  to  restore  peace  in  Jerusalem  (6). 

8.    Antiochus  Epiphanes,  King,  and  Jason,  High  Priest. 

Meanwhile,  the  political  situation  in  Antioch  changed. 
Heliodorus  raised  a  successful  sedition  against  Seleucus, 
who  was  slain  and  the  regicide  usurped  the  crown  of  Syria. 
However,  the  king's  brother,  Antiochus,  speedily  returned 
from  Rome  and  slew  Heliodorus.  This  prince  had  been  a 
hostage  in  Rome  for  thirteen  3'ears.  Seleucus  had  lately 
sent  his  son  Demetrius  there  in  exchange  for  Antiochus, 
who  returned  in  time  to  avenge  his  brother's  death  and  to 
receive  the  crown  of  Syria.  Having  been  in  Rome  so  many 
years,  he  lost  sight  of  the  traditions  of  his  family,  and  be- 
came a  terror  to  the  Hebrews.  It  was  before  that  new  king 
that  Onias  had  to  encounter  his  enemies.  His  brother,  Jason 
(Jesus,  or  Joshua),  underhandedly,  applied  to  the  king  to 
make  him  high  priest,  offering  him  a  bribe  of  440  talents,  for 
which  he  asked  the  privileges  of  Grecizing  the  Hebrews  and 
making  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  also  citizens  of  Antioch. 
Jason  prevailed.  Onias,  whose  presence  in  Jerusalem  was 
justly  dreaded  on  account  of  his  popularity,  was  removed 
from  office  and  commanded  to  stay  at  Antioch.  Jason  Avas 
sent  to  Jerusalem  as  high  priest,  i75  b.  c. 

9.     Jason's  Administration. 

This  first  triumph  of  the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  was  not 
entirely  welcome  to  all  of  them  :  for  the  sons  of  Tobias  did 
not  like  Jason,  who  was  not  radical  enough  for  them.  As  a 
stroke  of  policv,  it  must  certainly  have  pleased  those  who 
wanted  to  be  like  the  Greeks,  with  whom  a  huge  idolatry, 
frivolity,  laxity  of  morals.  Epicurism  and  skepticism  in  the 

(6)    II.  Maccabees  iii.  iv. 


70,  PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS. 

beguiling  forms  of  art  and  under  the  mask  of  the  beautiful, 
made  up  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  stern  Laws  of  Moses, 
the  institutions  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  the  binding  customs 
and  the  code  of  ethics  reared  on  that  basis,  were  in  their 
way,  and  some  of  them  wanted  to  see  them  annulled  at 
once.  But  this  was  not  in  the  power  of  Jason ;  it  was  not 
in  the  power  of  any  mortal  being.  Therefore,  he,  with  the 
same  object  in  view,  went  to  work  cautiously  and  with  ser- 
pent-like prudence,  which  the  impetuous  radicals  disliked. 
He  built  a  gymnasium  and  made  it  fashionable  for  the 
aristocratic  j'outh  to  attend  in  the  ephebeum,  to  imitate 
the  Greeks  in  games  and  nude  exercises,  which  made  it 
necessary  to  hide  the  sign  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant  by 
surgical  operations  (n^iy  'jEJ'lo)?  a,nd  had  the  effect  of  with- 
drawing the  young  priests  from  the  temple,  it  appearing  des- 
picable to  them.  Next  year  he  went  a  step  farther.  The 
quinquennial  games,  in  honor  of  Hercules,  being  celebrated 
at  Tj^re,  and  the  king  being  present,  Jason,  attended  by 
liis  partisans,  went  there  as  a  spectator,  of  course,  and  of- 
fered to  that  deity  3300  drachmas,  which  the  Tyrians  were 
ashamed  to  accej^t,  and  the  money  was  applied  to  ship  build- 
ing. Notwithstanding  all  these  innovations,  the  people 
kept  the  peace. 

10.     Jose  ben  Joezer  and  Jose  ben  John. 

All  of  them  made  two  mistakes,  viz. :  Jerusalem  was 
not  Palestine,  and  the  aristocracy  was  not  the  Hel^rew  peo- 
l^le.  Under  such  circumstances,  Jason  certainly  could  not 
i:»reside  over  the  Sanhedrin,  which  was  a  conservative  bod}', 
representing  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  disciples  of  An- 
tigonus  turned  up  as  heads  of  the  Sanhedrin,  viz. :  Jose  b. 
Joezer,  of  Zeredah,  in  Ephraim  (I.  Kings  x.  13)  as  the  pre- 
siding officer,  and  second  to  him,  Jose  ben  John  of  Jerusa- 
lem. The  former  certainly  was  a  son  of  Aaron  and  one  of 
the  Hassidim  (njinDnc>  T'on)  :  and  the  latter  appears  to 
have  been  a  brother  of  Mattathia,  the  Asmonean,  hence, 
also  a  priest.  They  were  the  bearers  and  exponents  of  the 
traditions  received  from  the  school  of  Antigonus  of  Sochu. 
The  motto  of  this  Jose  b.  Joezer  was  :  "  Let  thy  house  be 
the  meeting  place  for  the  wise,  cover  thyself  with  the  dust 
of  their  feet,  and  drink  with  thirst  their  words  "  i.  e.,  he  ad- 
vised many  private  meetings  to  discuss  the  public  affairs, 
and  urged  wise  counsel  to  prevail.  He  wanted  the  wise 
men  to  lead  and  the  common  men  to  obey  in  that  threaten- 
ing crisis.  His  colleague's  motto  was  :  "  Let  thy  house  be 
widely  open  (form  no  secret  societies),  let  the  poor  be  mem- 
bers of  thy  household  (the  rich  were  corrupted  to  the  core), 


PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS.  il 

and  converse  not  too  much  with  the  woman  "  (7).  Both 
mottoes  point  to  revolutionaiy  preparations  and  the  forma- 
tion of  secret  societies,  although,  apparently,  the  first  urges 
the  study  of  the  Law  and  the  second  the  practice  of  charity. 
An  ordinance  of  those  heads  of  the  Sunhedrin,  preserved  in 
the  Talmud  {Sahhath  14  b),  also  points  to  revolutionary 
preparations.  They  declared  Levitically  unclean  the  land 
of  tlie  Gentiles  and  all  glassware;  so  that  none  should 
leave  the  country ;  that  the  Hebrews  in  foreign  countries 
should  come  to  Palestine,  and  none  should  use  glassware, 
either  because  it  was  imported  from  Syria  or  in  order  that 
none  should  drink  Avith  the  SA'rians  and  the  Hebrew  aris- 
tocracy, who  used  glassware  (8). 

11.     The  xVppointment  of  Menelaus. 

The  differences  of  the  two  parties,  Hassidim  and  Gre- 
cians, had  now  taken  a  definite  shape  by  their  representa- 
tives, the  high  priest  at  the  head  of  the  aristocracy  and  the 
Jose  b.  Joezer  Sanhedrin  at  the  head  of  the  democracy. 
The  former,  however,  were  not  yet  united  on  account  of  the 
Sons  of  Tobias,  who  disliked  Jason.  However,  this  also  had 
to  be  overcome.  Antiochus,  who  had  called  himself  Epiph- 
anes  and  wanted  to  be  a  god,  made  preparations  to  invade 
Egypt  in  favor  of  his  young  nephew,  Ptolemy  Philometor, 
whose  mother,  Cleopatra,  had  died  (172  b.  c),  hoping  to  get 
the  king  and  the  land  in  his  power.  Inspecting  the  sea 
coast  fortifications,  the  king  came  to  Joppe  and  also  to 
Jerusalem,  where  he  had  a  brilliant  reception  by  Jason  and 
his  compatriots.  Still,  next  year  (171  b.  c),  Jason  sent  his 
brother,  Menelaus  (Elhanan  or  (Inias),  to  the  king  to  pay 
the  tribute.     Menelaus,  by  flattery  and  the  offer  of  300  tal- 

(7)  Aboth  i.  4,5,  HK'Xri,  "the  woman."  This  is  taken  from  Ben 
Sira,  ix.,  and  refers,  most  likely,  to  Cleopatra,  the  sister  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  then  queen  of  Egypt,  who  was  friendly  to  the  Heljrews, 
many  of  whom  may  have  expected  friendly  otfices  of  her ;  but  Jose 
had  more  confidence  in  the  poor  of  his  own  people  than  in  that 
royal  woman. 

(8)  The  ordinances  of  Jose  ben  Joezer  preserved  in  the  Mishvnh 
(Jedaim  viii.  4)  are  three,  viz.:  that  a  certain  class  of  locusts  ( Xi*J2p  S'X) 
was  lawful  food  ;  that  the  blood  and  water  issuing  from  the  slaughter- 
house does  not  make  unclean;  and  that  only  he  who  touches  one 
who  is  surely  dead,  is  unclean.  These  must  have  been  made  in  war 
time  to  increase  the  articles  of  food,  to  protect  the  warriors  agaii  st 
the  existi  g  laws  of  Levitical  clea-mess  by  touchi'  g  blood  or  a  slain 
arid  dyi  g  person  or  animal,  which  this  ordinarce  declared  as  not 
certainly  dead  ;  hence  i  ot  maki  gone  unclean.  See  Siphri  in  Chuk- 
katli,  25,  niO^  "li^K,  acd  Jacob  Bruell's  Mebo  Hammishnah,  p.  25. 


72  PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS. 

ents  more  per  annum  than  his  brother  paid,  but  chiefly  by 
the  influence  of  tlie  Sons  of  Tobias  and  their  party,  caused 
the  king  to  remove  Jason  from  his  office  and  to  appoint 
Menelaus  high  priest.  Jason,  after  some  resistance,  fled 
into  the  land  of  Amnion,  and  Menelaus,  backed  by  the 
Syrian  garrison  and  the  Grecian  party,  who  had  promised 
to  heathenize  Jerusalem,  was  now  in  power.  It  was  the 
policy  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  to  Grecize  and  to  unify  the 
remainder  of  the  Syrian  empire,  which  consisted  of  a  con- 
glomeration of  nationalities,  tongues,  traditions  and  reli- 
gions. He  was  misled  by  the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  into 
the  belief  that  this  could  be  done  in  Palestine  also.  But^ 
neither  he  nor  they  had  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Hebrews.  No  actual  resistance  was  offered  to 
Menelaus  and  his  apostatizing  schemes,  because  the  people 
outside  of  Jerusalem  had  not  yet  felt  the  influence  of  that 
new  policy. 

12.     Assassination  of  Onias  and  the  First  Mutiny. 

Menelaus  had  promised  more  than  he  could  raise.  The 
captain  of  the  garrison  pressed  him  to  pay,  which  he  could, 
not  do ;  so  both  of  them  were  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  king.  He  went  to  Cilicia  to  quell  a  revolt,  and  they  had 
to  appear  before  Andronicus,  the  temporary  regent.  Mene- 
laus, by  the  agency  of  his  brother,  Lysimachus,  left  in  his 
place  in  Jerusalem,  stole  valuable  vessels  from  the  temple, 
sold  them  at  Tyre  and  elsewhere,  to  pay  his  debt  and  to 
bribe  Andronicus,  in  order  to  dispose  of  Onias  III.,  the 
leader  of  the  Hassidim.  Andronicus  treacherously  slew 
Onias,  which  roused  the  indignation  of  Jews  and  Gentiles 
at  Antioch  against  the  traitor  and  assassin,  and  led  to  a 
mutiny  in  Jerusalem.  The  embittered  patriots  rose  against 
the  sacrilegious  thief,  Lysimachus,  who  sent  3,000  men  un- 
der Tyrannis,  to  quell  the  rebellion ;  but  they  were  over- 
powered by  the  people,  and  Lysimachus  was  slain  beside 
the  treasury  Avithin  the  temple. 

13.     More  Oppression — Senators  Slain. 

Antiochus  avenged  the  death  of  Onias  on  Andronicus, 
who  was  slain  on  the  spot  where  he  had  assassinated  the 
ex-high  priest ;  but  changed  not  his  policy  in  Jerusalem. 
The  king  soon  after  came  to  Tyre  (171  b.  c.j.  Here,  an  em- 
bassy of  the  Sanhedrin,  consisting  of  three  senators,  ap- 
peared l^efore  him.  They  accused  Menelaus  of  being  re- 
sponsible for  the  mutiny  in  Jerusalem.      Menelaus  bribed 


PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS.  73 

Ptolemy  Macron,  who  persuaded  the  king  to  absolve  Mene- 
laus  and  to  slay  the  three  delegates  of  the  Sanhedrin.  The 
Tyrians,  feeling  the  outrageous  injustice  done  by  the  king,, 
made  a  demonstration  by  giving  an  honorable  burial  to  the 
murdered  senators.  The  excitement  in  Jerusalem  was  fever- 
ish. Sights  were  seen,  predictions  made,  rebellion  was  ripe  ; 
still  ^lenelaus,  protected  by  the  Syrian  garrison,  was  master 
of  the  situation. 

14.     Jason's  Return, 

The  same  A'ear  Antiochus  invaded  Egypt.  A  false  rumor 
of  his  death  was  spread  in  Palestine,  over  which  the  Hassi- 
dim  doubtlessly  rejoiced.  Jason,  seizing  upon  this  oppor- 
tunity, came  with  a  thousand  men  to  Jerusalem,  took  it, 
drove  Menelaus  into  tlie  castle  of  the  Syrian  garrison  for 
protection,  slew  many  of  his  brother's  partisans  and  as- 
sumed again  the  high  priesthood. 

15.     First  Slaughter  in  Jerusalem. 

This  alarmed  Antiochus  ;  he  thought  the  whole  prov- 
ince was  in  rebellion  against  him.  He  marched  with  his 
whole  army  to  Jerusalem,  took  it,  ransacked  it,  slew  many 
thousands  of  its  inhabitants  and  captured  many  more  who> 
were  sold  as  slaves.  Jason  fled  from  land  to  land,  and  died 
a  despised  man  among  the  Lacedemonians.  Terror  reigned 
in  Jerusalem,  now  fully  in  the  hands  of  the  aristocracy, 
marshaled  by  Menelaus.  Many  of  the  Hassidim  left  the 
city,  and  among  them  was  also  the  hoary  INIattathia,  the  As- 
monean,  with  his  family,  who  fled  to  Modain. 

16.     Second  Slaughter  and  Partial  Destruction 
OF  the  City. 

The  Hebrews  bore  all  these  outrages  without  active  re- 
sistance, because,  divided  among  themselves  as  they  were, 
resistance  to  the  military  power  of  Antiochus  must  have 
appeared  sheer  madness  to  the  patriots,  who  were  without 
organization  and  arms.  In  the  year  169  b.  c,  Antiochus 
again  invaded  Egypt,  and  his  arms  were  victorious ;  when 
unexpectedly,  a  Roman  embassador  appeared  and,  in  be- 
half of  Rome,  haughtil}^  commanded  him  to  desist  and  to 
leave  the  country.  This  sudden  check  changed  the  king  to 
a  madman.  There  was  good  ground  of  fear  that  the  He- 
brews might  revolt  and  declare  in  favor  of  Egypt.  There- 
fore, Antiochus  sent  to  Jerusalem  an  army  of  twenty-two 
thousand  men  under  the  command  of  Appollonius  to  en- 


74  PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS. 

force  his  edict,  that  there  should  be  but  one  religion  and 
one  law  for  all  subjects  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  Appol- 
lonius  was  cheerfull}^  received  by  the  king's  creatures  at 
Jerusalem.  But  no  sooner  was  he  in  full  ])ossession  of  the 
city  than  he  began  to  plunder  and  to  destroy  it,  to  slaughter 
indiscriminately  friend  and  foe,  without  regard  to  age  or  sex, 
and  that  on  a  Sabbath  day  when  none  expected  an  attack. 
The  number  of  the  slain  was  believed  to  have  been  80,000, 
and  10,000  captives  were  led  away  and  sold  as  slaves. 
The  finest  buildings  of  the  lower  city  were  burnt  down,  the 
upper  city  walls  were  demolished  and  all  the  materials  were 
used  to  build  the  citadel  on  the  highest  point  of  Acra,  op- 
posite the  temple,  which  it  overlooked  and  domineered. 
The  city  being  ransacked,  the  temple  was  entered  and  plun- 
dered of  all  its  valuables.  Now  the  apostatizing  edicts  of 
the  king  were  proclaimed  over  the  ruins  of  the  city  and  the 
dumb  corpses  of  its  slain  inhabitants  to  the  aristocrats  and 
the  lackeys,  who  were  now  the  lords  of  Jerusalem  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  king's  soldiers  and  Philip,  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  devoted  country. 

17.     The  Temple  Paganized  and  the  People  Apos- 
tatized. 

Jerusalem  was  not  Palestine.  The  people  adhered  to 
their  faith  and  worshipers  visited  the  temple,  although  the 
daily  sacrifices  had  ceased.  Therefore,  when  the  citadel  of 
Acra  was  completed  and  the  Temple  Mount  could  be  con- 
venienth''  governed,  which  took  one  year's  time,  the  temple 
was  i)aganized.  On  the  25th  day  of  the  month  of  Kislev, 
167  J5.  c,  ])eing  a  Heathen  feast-day,  the  idol  erected  upon 
the  altar  and  other  idols  placed  on  the  Temple  Mount  and 
in  the  city,  were  dedicated  and  the  Heathen  worship  per- 
manently introduced.  Meanwhile  (168  and  167  b.  c.)  the 
work  of  apostatizing  the  Hebrews  was  rigorously  prose- 
cuted by  special  commissioners  all  over  Palestine  and  all 
over  Syria.  The  Hebrew  books  were  burnt  or  used  to  paint 
idols  in  the  scrolls  of  the  law.  The  observation  of  any  and 
every  Hebrew  law  was  prohibited  under  the  penalty  of 
death.  Heathen  altars  were  erected  in  the  towns  and  cities, 
swine  and  other  unclean  animals  were  sacrificed  upon 
them,  and  the  Hebrews  commanded  to  eat  of  the  sacrifices. 
All  this  was  rigorously  enforced,  and  every  resistance  was 
l)unished  with  death,  whether  in  Palestine  or  outside  thereof. 
Two  women  in  Jerusalem,  who  had  the  courage  to  circum- 
cise their  children,  were  dragged  through  the  city  with  their 
babes  hung  on  their  necks,  and  hurled  down  from  the  city 


PALESTINE    UNDER    SYRIAN    RULERS.  75 

Avails.  Seven  sons  of  one  mother,  whose  name  was  Han- 
nah, were  slain  in  her  presence,  one  after  the  other,  because 
each  of  them  steadfastly  refused  to  obey  the  king's  man- 
date by  doing  anything  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Israel.  A 
hoary  and  highly  esteemed  i:)riest,  Eleazar,  into  whose  mouth 
they  forced  a  piece  of  the  swine  sacrificed  to  the  idol,  was 
slain  on  the  spot  by  the  king's  hirelings  because  he  refused 
to  yield.  All  that  cruelty  could  invent  and  the  heartless 
slaves  of  a  savage  despot  could  enforce,  was  done  to  ajwsta- 
tize  the  Hebrews,  to  annihilate  their  rcpu])lic,  law,  religion, 
literature  and  civilization,  to  replace  the  ancient  faith  of 
Israel  by  the  Greco-Syrian  paganism. 

18.     The  Samaritans  and  Others  Yielded. 

Antiochus  Epi])hanes,  having  on  his  side  the  Hebrew 
aristocracy  led  ])y  Menelaus  and  the  Sons  of  Tobias,  most 
likeh'  believed  that  people  could  be  apostatized  in  a  very 
short  time  and  fully  naturalized  among  the  Syrians.  He 
was  encouraged  in  this  belief  also  by  the  Samaritans,  who 
yielded  at  once,  denied  their  being  Hebrews,  gave  up  the 
Law,  and  dedicated  their  temple  to  Jupiter  Hellenius. 
They  called  Antiochus  Epiphanes  a  god,  as  he  wished  to  be 
called,  and  escaped  unhurt.  Many  of  the  Hebrews,  to  save 
life  and  property,  submitted  to  the  king's  command  and 
I)ent  their  knees  to  his  idols.  He  had  them  completely  un- 
der his  control,  a  helpless  peojile,  and  was  accustomed  to 
believe  there  was  not  much  difference  in  the  various  gods,  as 
all  Heathens  thought,  especially  at  that  time  of  frivolity 
and  corruption.  And  yet  he  was  grievously  mistaken. 
Truth  is  indestructible  ;  her  apostles  are  invincible,  her  God 
is  long-suffering,  but  he  visits  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children  and  children's  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generations  of  them  who  hate  him. 


76  LITERATUEE   AND    CULTURE 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Literature  and  Culture  in  the  Grecian  Period, 


1,    Hebrews  and  Greeks. 

The  Caucasian  race,  at  an  early  stage  of  its  history,  sep- 
arated into  two  families,  the  Aryan  and  the  Semitic.  Num- 
erous words  in  the  languages  of  these  two  families,  also 
traditions  and  myths,  point  to  their  common  origin.  With. 
the  Aryans,  intelligence  and  civilization  culminated  in  the 
Greeks  ;  with  the  Semites,  in  the  Heljrews.  These  were  the 
two  most  advanced  nations  of  antiquity.  There  was  a  rad- 
ical difference  between  them.  The  Greeks  were  Polytheists, 
idolaters,  materialists,  Avorshipers  of  nature  in  its  manifest- 
ations. The  Hebrews  were  Monotheists,  spiritists,  worship- 
ers of  nature's  internal  and  eternal  cause,  Jehovah.  In 
consequence  of  these  fundamental  principles,  the  attention 
of  the  Greeks  was  mainly  directed  to  the  exteriority  of  na- 
ture and  its  objects,  phenomenon  and  form ;  and  the  He- 
brews' attention  was  directed  mainly  to  the  inferiority  of 
nature  and  its  objects.  Therefore,  the  plastic  arts  and 
beauty  in  language,  art  and  philosophy,  culminated  in. 
Greece  ;  and  the  purely  intellectual  elements  of  civilization, 
religion,  theology,  ethics  and  the  code  of  human  rights,  were 
developed  in  Palestine.  Beauty  is  Greek  and  truth  is  He- 
brew. In  philosophy,  too,  the  form  is  Greek  and  the  sub- 
stance Hebrew.  The  Greeks  were  cheerful  and  gay  priests 
of  beauty  and  aesthetics ;  and  the  Hebrews  serious  and 
stern  apostles  of  truth  and  law.  So  the  Hebrews  became 
prophets  and  the  Greeks  artists. 

2.     Hebrews  and  Greeks  Meet. 

The  Hebrews,  like  the  Greeks,  had  come  in  contact  with 
all  the  ancient  civilizations  of  Asia  and  Africa  and  learned 


IN   THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD.  ti 

much,  while  they  lost  much  of  their  one-sidedness.  They 
had  been  acquainted  with  the  Greeks  [Javan)  and  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Ionian  Islands  {Josliehai,  Ila-iyhn,  Ha- 
recJiolcim.)  as  early  as  the  seventh  century  b.  c.  The  rela- 
tions between  Persia  and  Greece  also  must  have  brought 
the  Hebrews  in  contact  with  Greeks.  Aristobul,  the  Alex- 
andrian philosopher,  maintained  that  the  Greeks  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  Pentateuch  long  before  the  time  of  Ptol- 
emy Philadelphus,  and  ancient  Christian  Avriters,  on  the 
statements  of  Greek  authors,  advanced  that  Pythagoras, 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  no  less  than  Solon  and  Lycurgus,  had 
learned  much  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  whom  they  some- 
times called  Phoenicians,  and  at  other  times,  Syrians,  because 
externally  and  in  language  they  did  not  differ  materially, 
and  the  Greeks  were  more  familiar  with  the  maritime  coun- 
tries (1).  From  and  after  Alexander  the  Great,  however, 
the  contact  of  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks  was  constant  in 
Egypt,  Syria  and  Greece.  The  classical  writers  begin  to 
mention  the  Hebrews  as  a  distinct  people,  with  traditions, 
laws,  religion  and  customs  of  their  own  (2). 

3.     Heathen  Writers  on  the  Hebreavs. 

The  Heathen  writers  of  this  period  who  make  mention  of 
the  Hebrews,  or  treat  of  their  history  and  laws,  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 

1.  Berosus,  the  Babylonian  astronomer,  a  priest  of 
Bel,  born  330  b.  c.  He  moved  to  Cos,  the  birth-place  of 
Hippocrates,  and  then  to  Athens.  He  wrote,  in  three  books, 
a  history  of  the  Chaldeans,  fragments  of  Avhich  were  pre- 
served by  Josephus,  Syncellus  and  Eusebius.  He  confirms 
the  histoiy  of  the  Hebrews  from  Noah  to  Cyrus,  and  adds 
to  it  valuable  information. 

2.  HecaTuEus  of  Abdera,  a  philosopher  and  statesman 
in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  a  favorite  of  Ptolemy 
Lagi.  Among  the  various  books  written  by  this  author, 
there  were  also  a  history  of  the  Hebrews  (Joseph,  contra 
Apion  i.  2),  and  a  book  on  Abraham  (Antiq.  i.  vii.  2).  He 
Avas  so  friendly  to  the  Jews  that  some  doubted  the  authen- 
ticity of  those  books,  and  others  advanced  that  Hecattieus  had 
embraced  Judaism. 

3.  Aristeas,  the  author  of  the  epistle  to  Philocrates,  on 


(1)  Original  passages  see   in    Josephus'   contra  Apion,   also  in 
Clemens  of  Alexandria,  Origines,  and  Eusebius. 

(2)  See  C.  Mueller's  Fragmenta  Hisioricorum  Graecorum;  John  Gill's 
^'  Notices  of  the  Jews,"  etc. 


1 6  LITERATURE   AND    CULTURE 

the  origin  of  the  Septiiagint,  under  Ptolemy  Philadelphus. 
The  author  presents  himself  as  a  heathen  at  the  Court  of 
Ptolemy.  He  and  Andreas  were  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  the 
high  priest  to  obtain  a  copy  of  the  Law  and  authorized 
translators  thereof.  He  evinces  particular  admiration  for 
the  laws  and  philosophy  of  the  Hebrews.  In  the  seven- 
teenth century  a.  c.  the  epistle  of  Aristeas  was  declared  a 
forgery ;  its  author  was  supposed  to  have  been  an  Egyptian 
Israelite  of  the  second  or  first  century  b.  c.  Scaliger,  Voss 
and  Hody  were  of  this  opinion.  In  defense  of  this  epistle, 
its  English  translator,  Lewis,  Wil.  Whiston  and  Charles 
Hays,  wrote  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  indorsement 
of  Philo,  Josephus  and  the  ancient  Christian  writers,  are  in 
its  favor.  The  arguments  of  August  Ferdinand  Daehne 
against  the  authenticity  of  this  epistle,  although  it  has  been 
repeated  by  most  all  modern  writers,  is  nevertheless  worth- 
less on  account  of  the  following  mistakes  :  (a)  He  advances 
that  the  Hebrews  did  not  philosophize,  and  the  Books  of  Job. 
Ecclesiastes,  Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  several  Psalms,  prove 
that  they  did.  (h)  He  advances  that  the  Hebrews  were  nar- 
rowed down  to  a  literal  observation  of  tlie  laws,  and  we  have 
proved  in  the  former  period  their  catholicity  and  the  uni- 
versality of  their  speculations,  (c)  He  advances  that  the 
spirituality  in  Hebrew  theology  is  of  Alexandrian  origin,, 
for  which  there  is  no  cause  whatsoever,  as  the  Jehovah  the- 
ology is  in  itself  the  loftiest  spiritual  speculation,  which 
was  only  too  lofty  for  the  Alexandrians,  who  made  for  them- 
selves a  manifested  God,  an  accommodated  God,  formally 
distinguished  from  God  himself.  Aristeas  may  have  been 
a  heathen  who,  like  others,  admired  the  sublimit}^  and  sim- 
plicit}'  of  Hebrew  theology  and  law.  He  learned  the  philo- 
sophical views  of  the  Hebrews  in  Alexandria  and  Jerusa- 
lem, and  made  them  his  own,  although  they  lacked  the  for- 
malit}^  of  the  Greeks.  The  high  priest,  Eleazar,  in  that 
epistle,  expounds  a  law  allegorically,  as  many  other  laws 
were  expounded  in  Jerusalem  outside  of  the  courts  of  law, 
by  pn^aehers  and  teachers  of  religion  (3).  There  was  no 
Alexandrian  Jewish  philosophy  before  Aristobul,  and  no 
such  theosophy  before  Philo,  who  belongs  to  the  Josephus 
period,  and  the  Aristeas  letter  may  be  authentic. 

4.     Other  Heathen  writers  about  the  Hebrews  in  this 


(3)  It  is  a  mistake  to  maintain  that  the  allegorical  exegese  origi- 
nated in  Alexandria,  when  the  Bible  contains  numerous  allegories 
and  also  their  exjjlanations,  and  the  various  forms  of  the  mashal,  fa- 
ble, legend,  parable  and  allegory  reappears  in  every  Jewish  produc- 
tion of  Palestine. 


IN   THE   GRECIAN   PERIOD.  79 

period  were  Demetrius  Piialereus,  the  first  librarian  of  the 
Alexandrian  library  (4),  and  Hermippus,  of  Smyrna  (5), 
who  advanced  the  intelligence  that  Pythagoras  imported 
Hebrew  and  Thracian  opinions  in  his  system  ;  Clearchus, 
a  disciple  of  Aristotle ;  Artapanos,  who  makes  of  Moses 
the  teacher  of  Orpheus,  and  of  Joseph  the  inventor  of  philoso- 
phy ;  and  the  Egyptian  priest,  Manetho  (6),  whose  vilkiinous 
charges  against  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  have  been 
discussed  by  so  many  authors. 

4.  Hebrew  Books  of  the  Grecian  Period. 
In  order  to  determine  intelligently  which  books  belong 
to  this  period,  the  following  points  must  be  borne  in  mind  : 
(a)  As  by  contact,  the  Gentiles  learned  from  the  Hebrews, 
so  the  latter  must  have  learned  of  the  former.  The  close 
of  the  Grecian  period  proves  that  the  Hebrews  had  learned 
too  much  of  the  Greeks.  Therefore,  analogies  in  any  book 
to  a  system  of  Greek  philosophy  do  not  prove  that  such 
book  was  written  outside  of  Palestine  or  after  this  period. 
(5)  Not  all  ideas  uttered  by  any  Greek  philosopher  must 
necessarily  have  come  from  Greece  to  Palestine,  as  reason- 
ers  far  apart  may  simultaneously  utter  the  same  ideas,  and 
many  of  them  have  come  to  Greece  from  Palestine,  (o) 
Philosophy  invents  not ;  it  classifies  discoveries  and  estab- 
lishes the*  laws  thereof.  Every  philosophical  system  was 
preceded  by  its  substantial  ideas  and  truisms.  Mankind 
knows  more  than  science  grasps,  and  thinks  more  than 
philosophy  utilizes.  Least  of  all,  the  Alexandrian  philoso- 
phers were  original,  who,  at  their  zenith  of  glory,  were 
eclectics.  (d)  The  substantial  elements  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Jewish  philosophy  and  theosophy  are  laid  down  in 
the  Greek  version  of  the  Bible  and  the  Hebrew  books  writ- 
ten during  this  period,  consequently  they  were  carried  from 
Palestine  to  Egypt,  and  not  vice  versa,  which  the  Septua- 
gint  proves  beyond  a  doubt.  The  particular  method  of  har- 
monization of  Bible  and  philosophy,  by  allegorizing  most 
liberally  Scriptural  parts,  laws  and  sentences,  is  Alexan- 
drian. But  this  by  no  means  says  that  Palestinean  preach- 
ers did  not  allegorize  at  all.  They  did,  as  is  evident  from 
very  ancient  rabbinical  passages  (7).     (e)  The  issues  of  the 

(4)  Josephus'  contra  Apion  i.  23;  Euseb.  Prac.  Evang.  ix.  21. 

(5)  Origenes  contra  Celsus  i.  15  (about  200  b.  c). 

(6)  Suidas  Doce  Manetho ;  Josephus' contra  Apion  i.;  Boekh,  Man- 
etho ;  John  Gill's  Notices,  etc.,  p.  3,  110. 

(7)  See,  for  instance,  Mishnah,  Rush  Hashanahiii.  8  ;  MeguiUahW. 
9,  ,nV"iyn  ni30n.     in  aftertimes,  it  was  prohibited  as  being  n''JQ  n73D 

na^HD  ay^  n-nni  Aboth  iu.  ii. 


80  LITERATURE    AND    CULTURE 

period  which,  at  last,  drove  one  party  to  extreme  orthodoxy 
and  stern  righteousness,  and  the  other  to  extreme  Grecisra 
and  apostasy,  were  these  :  (1 )  Concerning  man's  highest 
authority,  whether  it  was  the  Thorah,  Sinai,  llevehition  or 
Wisdom;  (2)  Concerning  ethics,  whether  orthodoxy  and 
righteousness  were  inseparahle  or  separable  ;  whether  right- 
eousness in  the  name  of  God  leads  to  wisdon  or  vice  vej'sa,' 
whether  righteousness  contains  its  own  reward  or  it  must 
lead  to  pleasure  and  happiness;  (3)  Concerning  esciiatol- 
ogy,  whether  there  is  reward  and  punishment  in  life  eternal, 
which  involved  the  question  of  immortality  and  the  form 
thereof,  or  righteousness  must  be  rewarded  in  this  life,  as  it 
appears  from  one  set  of  arguments  in  the  Book  of  Job ;  and 
(4)  Concerning  politics,  whether,  in  consequence  of  the 
above  issues,  the  Thorah  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, 
or  whether  the  king  and  his  will  are.  These  issues  of  the 
period  determine  its  literature,  as  authors  in  all  ages  write 
on  the  issues  before  them.  The  Hebrew  books  of  the  Gre- 
cian period  which  have  reached  us  aro  Ecclesiastes  {Ivohe- 
leth),  the  Song  of  Songs  {Shir  Tlai^Ji-shirim)^  Esther 
{Meguillath  Esther)^  Daniel,  the  Wisdom  of  Joshua,  son 
of  Sirach,  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon. 

5.     The  Song  of  Solomon. 

Considering  what  has  been  written  on  the  Song  of  Solo- 
mon or  the  Song  of  Songs  {Shh'  Ilash-shii'iin),  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  again  that  King  Solomon  was  not  the 
author  of  this  most  beautiful  of  all  poems ;  because  (a)  the 
Solomon  of  this  song  is  conquered  and  ironically  dismissed 
by  the  simple  shepherdess,  Sulamith,  of  Galilee  ;  his  wealth, 
power  and  wisdom  are  derided  by  a  peasant  girl's  invinci- 
ble affection  for  her  friend.  King  Solomon  could  not  have 
made  himself  the  subject  of  a  satire,  (b)  It  contains  Gre- 
cisms  and  Aramisms  which  point  to  a  time  when  the  Syriac 
and  Greek  languages  had  already  left  their  imprints  on  the 
Hebrews,  (c)  There  is  no  God  and  no  name  of  God  in  the 
whole  song ;  it  could  not  have  been  Avritten  in  the  propheti- 
cal time,  when  the  name  of  God  was  first  and  last  on  the  lips 
of  the  inspired  speakers,  (d)  It  is  in  form  Grecian,  and  not 
Hebrew ;  it  is  a  drama  with  two  choruses  and  a  coryphaeus 
to  each.  The  ancient  rabbis  (Mishnah,  Yedaim  iii.  5)  dif- 
fered in  opinion  as  to  Avhether  the  Song  of  Solomon  and 
Ecclesiastes  were  to  be  classed  with  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the 
third  class  (Hagiography),  although  R.  Akiba  maintained 
that  the  Song  of  Solomon  was  most  holy.  Take,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  time  of  Ptolemy  HI.,  when  the  Grecizing  Hebrews 


IN    THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD.  81 

were  enthusiastic  for  the  king  and  wisdom,  as  the  liighest 
authority  and  ideaL  Solomon  was,  in  the  Hehrew  tradi- 
tions, of  all  kings  the  greatest  and  wisest,  the  ideal  of 
royal  power  and  wisdom.  An  excellent  poet,  whose  name 
lias  not  reached  posterity,  personifies  the  congregation  of 
Israel  with  its  simple,  sublime  belief  in  revelation  and  its 
unshaken  faith  in  God,  and  calls  that  allegorical  figure  Su- 
laniitli,  whose  simplicity  is  as  touching  as  her  affections 
and  fidclit}'  are  admirable  and  sublime.  Her  friend,  to 
Avhum  all  her  devotion  belongs,  never  appears  on  the  stage ; 
because  he  represents  the  God  of  Israel,  whom  the  poet 
would  not  personify.  He  places  the  simple  shepherdess, 
Sulamith,  in  juxtaposition  to  the  wisest,  mightiest  and 
most  pompous  king,  Solomon,  surrounded  by  ^  all  the 
magnificence,  splendor  and  beguiling  pomp  of  his  court. 
He  represents  most  happily  the  spirit  of  that  age  and 
the  ideals  of  the  Grecian  Hebrews.  The  king  loves  Su- 
lamith ;  it  was  no  age  of  persecution ;  he  loves  her  as  a 
king  with  a  thousand  wives  loves  a  maiden,  and  she  loves 
him  in  moments  of  weakness.  But  her  faith,  her  fidelity, 
her  watchful  conscience,  triumph  over  all  allurements  ;  she 
.  rejects  the  conquered  king  and  returns  to  her  friend  on  the 
mountains,  like  invincible  virtue.  The  daughter  of  Israel 
has  never  been  glorified  more  successfully  than  in  this  song, 
■and  yet  it  is  an  allegory,  written  in  l)ehalf  of  the  Ilassidim 
and  against  tlie  Grecian  Hebrews,  written  in  a  most  amia- 
ble spirit,  inoffensive,  yet  forcibly  argumentative,  pleasing 
to  the  senses,  yet  suasive  in  the  main  point ;  so  that  R. 
Akiba  could  say  of  it  "  all  songs  are  holy,  but  this  song  of 
songs  is  most  holy." 

6.     The  Book  of  Esther. 

The  Book  of  Esther  is  an  imitation  of  the  Song  of  Sol- 
omon, only  that  it  is  a  drama  and  the  former  a  historical 
romance,  written  in  the  time  of  Seleucus.  Like  the  Song 
of  Solomon,  it  has  no  God  and  no  name  of  God,  and  is  full 
of  Aramisms.  It  is  written  so  that  each  chapter  is  intended 
to  surprise  the  reader,  exactly  in  the  style  of  the  romance  ; 
and  there  are  different  versions  of  the  story  in  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Syriac,  which,  however,  agree  in  the  main  facts, 
so  that  there'^can  be  no  doubt  that  each  writer  had  an  ol^ject 
in  view,  according  to  which  he  shaped  and  presented  the 
historical  facts.  Like  the  Song  of  Solomon,  the  Book  of 
Esther  was  also  written  for  profane  reading,  and  handles 
the  same  questions.  Sulamith  becomes  Esther  ;  the  daugh- 
ter of  Israel  is  placed  in  the  position  where   the   poet  of 


82  LITERATURE   AND    CULTURE 

Solomon's  Song  could  not  have  placed  her ;  she  is  a  queen. 
She  is  not  as  noble  and  generous  as  Sulamith,  the  congre- 
gation of  Israel  is  not  as  faithful  as  it  was,  and  Mordecai, 
the  vigorous  and  ever-watchful  Ilassidisra^  must  somewhat 
harshly  remind  her  to  bestir  herself  in  behalf  of  her  de- 
voted people ;  but  then  she  rises  nobly,  piously,  prudently 
and  successfully.  The  king  is  represented  as  an  imbecile 
and  fool,  which  was  well  directed  against  the  royal  idealism 
of  the  Grecian  Hebrews.  The  author  personified  Seleucus 
in  Ahasveros,  Heliodorus  in  Haman,  Onias  in  Mordecai,  the 
congregation  of  the  faithful  in  Esther.  Both  the  historical 
facts  and  the  allegory  are  well  presented,  and  in  the  very 
sense  of  the  poet  of  the  Song  of  Solomon.  Judith  and  Su- 
sanna, written  in  other  periods,  are  imitations  of  the  twa 
books  just  discussed,  personifying  the  congregation  of  Is- 
rael by  a  noble  daughter  of  Israel,  as  Tobit  is  an  imitation 
of  Job. 

7.    The  Book  op  Ecclesiastes. 

All  the  arguments  advanced  in  regard  to  the  Books  of 
Job  and  the  Song  of  Solomon  apply  with  equal  force  to  the 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  to  establish  the  fact  that  it  was  not 
written  prior  to  this  period ;  nor  could  it  have  been  written 
later,  as  shortly  after  this  period  the  third  part  of  the  Canon,, 
the  Hagiography,  in  which  this  book  Avas  placed  imme- 
•diately  after  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  was  closed  (Baba 
Bathra  19  b).  Ecclesiastes  iv.  13  to  17,  and  x.  17,  ap- 
pear to  point  to  Antiochus  the  Great  and  the  child  Ptolemy 
Epiphanes ;  and  verse  20,  to  the  tax  collector,  Joseph  and 
his  sons,  the  espionage  in  Jerusalem  during  the  wars  of  An- 
tiochus the  Great  with  Egypt.  Ibid  ix.  13  apparently 
points  to  the  fate  of  Hannibal.  It  is,  therefore,  safe  to 
place  the  origin  of  this  book  in  the  early  days  of  the  reign 
of  Epiphanes,  before  200  b.  c.  The  author's  name  was  not 
ascertained,  for  it  is  fictitious.  He  calls  himself  Koheleth, 
a  son  of  David,  king  in  Jerusalem  (Ecclesiastes  i.  1),  and 
says  (Ibid  i.  12)  that  he  was  king  over  Israel  in  Jerusalem, 
hence  he  was  king  no  more  when  he  wrote  that  book.  The 
editors  of  this  book  call  him  Ilak-Jcoheleth  (Ibid  xii.  8), 
showing  that  it  is  not  a  proper  noun ;  it  is  the  hoJieleth. 
There  is  no  reason  whatsoever  to  believe  that  King  Solomon 
wrote  this  book  under  a  fictitious  name  (8).     And  yet  the 

(8)  See  Nacliman  Krochmal's  Moreh  Nehuchei  Haz-zeman,  Shaar 
xi.,  Simmon  viii.;  and  in  Kerem  Chewed  of  the  year  1841,  p.  79. 
Krochmal  thinks  Ecclesiastes  was  written  towarS.  the  end  of  the 
Medo-Persian  Period,  which  is  a  mistake,  because  the  Greek  Skepti- 


IX   THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD.  83 

ancient  expounders  and  translators  ascribed  this  book  to 
Solomon.  They  wanted  to  exclude  it  from  the  Canon  be- 
cause it  contradicts  the  words  of  David  and  contains  con- 
tradictory statements  (9)  which  incline  to  unbelief  (10) ; 
still  they  sustained  it  because  its  beginning  and  close  are 
"  words  of  the  law  "  (11).  This  assumption  is  not  based 
upon  the  "  Ben  David,"  for  any  other  son  of  David,  in  any 
century,  might  have  so  called  himself.  The  words  "  king  at 
Jerusalem"  (i.  1)  may  refer  to  David  and  not  to  Kohelethy 
and  in  verse  12  he  simply  maintains  that  the  Koheleth  was 
once  king  of  Israel  in  Jerusalem,  but  Avas  so  no  more.  Ko- 
heleth is  an  allegoric  name.  It  signifies  "  congregation  "  in 
the  abstract.  The  author,  who  was  a  Davidian  of  Jerusa- 
lem, assumes  the  title  Koheleth,  "  the  congregation,"  which 
in  better  times  reigned  over  Israel  in  Jerusalem,  but  was 
now  deposed  by  the  incursions  of  Grecian  philosophy  and 
customs,  the  progress  of  commerce  and  materialism.  He 
had  learned  of  the  Sliii'  Hash-shirim  poet  to  personify 
the  congregation  of  Israel,  in  behalf  of  which  the  great  and 
wise  king  argues  against  the  Grecians  of  his  age ;  and  this 
great  king,  without  mentioning  his  name,  speaks  of  himself 
as  if  he  were  Solomon.  It  is,  in  this  particular  point,  the 
counterpart  of  Solomon's  Song.  There  the  poet  represents 
in  Solomon  the  roA'al  master  with  all  his  claims,  as  the 
Grecians  presented  the  king,  succumbing  at  last  to  the 
majesty  of  the  congregation  of  Israel  personified  in  Sula- 
mith.  Here  the  philosopher  represents  a  philosophical  and 
apologetic  Solomon  in  defense  of  the  congregation  of  Israel. 
He  calmly  reviews  all  the  claims  of  the  Grecians,  with  all 
the  philosophisms  and  sophisms  of  the  age,  the  fatalism 
and  astrology  of  the  orientals,  the  Skepticism  and  Epicur- 
ism of  the  Greeks,  with  their  Eudemonism  and  pleasure- 
seeking  virtues.  He  hints  at  the  Stoics  (vii.  15)  and  chas- 
tises the  self-complacent  rationalism  of  his  age,  which 
sought  the  supreme  good  in  "Wisdom,"  and  relied  upon  its 
ability  to  explain  all  enigmas  of  existence.  He  chastises 
no  less  the  supposed  importance  of  the  king,  power,  wealth 
and  satiating  enjoyment.  He  has  thought  of  all  and  tried 
all  which  his  generation  knew  and  had ;  he  has  denied  with 
them  the  consolation  of  immortality  and  the  happiness  of 
virtue.     Like  them  he  has  thrown  aside  all  traditions  of  the 


cism  and  Epicurism,  against  which  the  book  evidently  argues,  did  not 
exist  at  that  time. 

(9)     Talmud  Sabbath,  30  a  and  h. 

(10)  Midranh  Koheleth  Rabbah. 

(11)  Talmud  ibid. 


84  LITERATURE    AND    CULTURE 

fathers  and  all  doctrines  of  revelation.  But  at  the  end  of 
each  experiment  he  finds  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  saith  Kolie- 
leth,  it  is  all  vanity  and  windy  imagination."  Your  philoso- 
phisms  and  sophisms  can  only  lead  me  to  despair,  to  end  in 
suicide,  he  told  his  cotemporaries,  for  they  explain  nothing 
and  render  life  intolerable  :  "  For  in  much  wisdom  is  much 
tribulation ;  the  increase  of  knowledge  is  the  increase  of 
affliction."  The  cup  of  joy  emptied  to  its  very  bottom 
brings  bitterness  and  disgust.  The  kings  reign  and  oppres- 
sion prevails.  The  rich  and  the  poor,  the  sage  and  the  fool, 
must  die,  and  none  of  them  finds  happiness  in  life  or  ac- 
knowledgement after  it.  With  all  your  wisdom,  power, 
wealth  and  splendor,  you  are  miserable  after  all,  he  tells 
his  readers ;  therefore,  there  can  be  no  truth  in  your  philos- 
ophy and  sophistry.  Therefore,  he  concludes  (chap.  xii.  1 
to  7),  "  Remember  thy  Creator  in  the  daj'S  of  thy  youth," 
etc.  "And  the  dust  returns  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the 
spirit  returns  to  God  who  has  given  it."  The  only  consola- 
tion left  to  man  is  in  God,  revelation  and  immortality. 
Kolieleth  took  to  task  all  the  questions  of  his  age,  and 
seeks  to  prove  that  salvation  and  true  wisdom  are  only  in 
the  congregation  of  Israel,  with  her  God,  revelation  and  im- 
mortality doctrines.  Greek  philosophy  and  the  Grecian 
claims  for  the  sovereignty  of  wisdom  and  the  king,  liave 
found  no  more  successful  skeptic  and  critic  than  Koheleth. 
Therefore  this  book  was  accepted  afterward  in  the  Canon. 

8.    The  Psalms  of  this  Period. 

An  age  of  extensive  commerce  and  domineering  materi- 
alism, as  the  Grecian  period  Avas,  is  favorable  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  practical  sciences  and  arts,  and  hostile  to  re- 
ligion, philosophy,  poetry  and  the  fine  arts.  Therefore,  tlie 
sacred  lyre  was  also  silenced  in  Israel.  Yet  Psalms  xlix. 
and  Ixxiii.  were  evidently  Avritten  shortly  after  Koheleth 
and  discuss  the  same  themes.  Psalm  fifty  can  hardly  be 
misunderstood;  it  Avas  directly  against  Menelaus  and  his 
brother,  Avhen  the  holy  vessels  had  been  stolen  from  the 
temple.  Psalms  xlii.  to  xliv.,  as  also  Psalms  Ixxiv.  to  Ixxix., 
can  be  understood  only  in  connection  with  the  bloody  de- 
crees of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  subsequent  massacres 
and  the  desolation  of  the  temple.  Concerning  Psalm  Ixxiv., 
it  is  maintained  in  the  Talmud  {Sanhedrin  96  h)  that  it 
refers  to  the  destruction  of  the  first  temple  ;  but  this  opin- 
ion is  controverted  in  verse  9  of  that  Psalm.  With  the  suf- 
fering of  the  faithful,  the  sacred  lyre  resounded  again,  and 
this  time  Avith  tearful  strains.     Psalm  Ixxi.  appears   to  be 


IN    THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD.  85 

the  prayer  of  Mattatliia  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion, 
which  opens  the  next  period. 

9.     The  Book  of  Daniel. 

Daniel  was  no  prophet,  it  is  maintained  in  the  Talmud 
(Sanhedrin  94  b),  and  the  book  which  bears  his  name  was 
not  accepted  in  the  Prophetical  Canon ;  still  the  book  stood 
in  very  high  esteem  in  the  days  of  Josephus.  Its  Aramaic 
chapters  (ii.-vii.)  were  certainly  not  written  in  Palestine, 
because  they  are  classical,  and  the  Hebrews  at  the  end  of 
this  period  were  better  acquainted  with  the  Greek  than  the 
Aramaic.  Therefore,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Aramaic 
portion  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  was  written  in  Babylon  and 
b}'  Daniel  himself,  or  one  who  had  access  to  his  notes  and 
dates.  Josephus  (Antiquities  xi.  viii.  5)  states  that  the 
Book  of  Daniel  was  shown  in  Jerusalem  to  Alexander  the 
Great,  "  wherein  Daniel  declared  that  one  of  the  Greeks 
should  destroy  the  empire  of  the  Persians,"  and  Alexander 
supposed  that  he  himself  was  the  person  intended.  Yet  it 
is  evident  (12)  that  the  Hebrew  portion  w^as  written  after 
170  B.  c,  by  a  patriot  secreted  somewhere  in  the  country,  to 
rouse  the  Hassidim  to  the  terrible  combat  against  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanes,  and  to  inspire  them  with  the  certainty  of 
victory.  Its  mystic,  apocalyptic  style,  its  h3-postasis  of 
angels  called  by  mysterious  names,  its  vivid,  lucid  and  exact 
description  of  historical  events  in  the  dim  twilight  of  proph- 
ecy, and  its  powerful  aitpeal  to  the  national  feelings  and  con- 
sciousness that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  must  outlive  all  po- 
tentates and  empires,  betray  the  object  and  time  of  its  origin 
in  the  time  of  persecution,  to  pour  inspiration  into  the  hearts 
of  the  patriots.  Therefore,  the  origin  of  this  book  is  easily 
accounted  for.  The  originally  Aramaic  chapters  contain  no 
prophecy  reaching  beyond  the  fall  of  Babylon.  They  refer 
to  the  four  last  kings  of  the  empire,  in  which  Daniel  him- 
self was  a  prominent  sage  and  statesman.  The  style  of  the 
book,  however,  is  so  mysterious  that  it  admits  of  various 
interpretations.  In  Palestine,  especially,  wdiere  the  Ara- 
maic was  but  partiall}'  understood  at  that  time,  it  was  no 
difficult  task  to  expound  some  of  its  passages  to  the  satis- 
laction  of  Alexander,  or  to  discover  in  others  different 
prophecies.  A  patriotic  man,  when  the  persecutions  by  An- 
tiochus  Epiphanes  had  become  intolerable,  seized  upon  that 
book  and  added  to  it,  prophecies  in  the  name  of  Daniel, 

(12)    H.  Ewald's  Geschichte  Ezra's,  etc.,  p.  342-348;  Dr.  L.  Philip- 
son's  Bible,  Einleitung  zum  Buche  Daniel. 


86  LITERATURE    AND    CULTURE 

Avhich  jDredicted  tlie  whole  history  to  the  downfall  of  that 
king  and  the  triumph  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Its  ex- 
pounders did  the  same  thing  by  imposing  on  the  book  an}^ 
subsequent  facts  of  history  as  predictions  made  in  the  mis- 
understood and  misconstrued  book,  so  that  the  rabbis  were 
obliged  to  declare  that  Daniel  was  no  prophet.  The  eminent 
services  which  it  had  rendered  in  the  war  of  indeiDcndence, 
the  original  Daniel  chapters  which  it  contains,  and  its 
(inost-kabbalistic  elements,  secured  it  a  place  in  the  third 
division  of  the  Canon. 

10.     The  Wisdom  of  Jesus,  Son  of  Sirach. 

Two  books  of  the  Pseudo-Solomonic  literature  are  among 
the  Apocrypha  of  the  Old  Testament ;  the  one  of  Jesus, 
son  of  Siracli  or  Sira.  which,  in  the  main,  is  an  imitation  of 
Solomon's  Proverbs ;  and  the  other  called  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  or  also  the  Book  of  Wisdom  or  Ecclesiasticus,  is 
original  and  Pseudo-Solomonic.  Ben  Sirach  appears  to  be 
older  than  KoheletJi.  The  Hebrew  originals  of  those  two 
books  have  been  lost  (13).  Both  of  them  are  gnomical  like 
Solomon's  Proverbs,  and  in  the  same  form  of  paralellism  ;  so 
that  the  Hebrew  original  is  distinctly  marked  in  the  Greek 
translations.  Ben  Sirach's  Hebrew  original  was  known  to 
and  extensively  quoted  and  imitated  by  the  rabbis  (14); 
and  Hieronymus  reports  to  have  seen  it.  The  Greek  trans- 
lation was  written  b}^  the  author's  grandson  in  Egypt,  the 
Syriac,  Aramaic  and  Arabic  translations  were  written  later. 
It  is  called  in  the  Talmud  "  Ben  Sira,"  and  is  mentioned 
among  other  apocrypha,  although  the  expounders  of  the 
Mishnah  again  speak  of  it  as  being  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
Hagiography.  The  author  calls  himself  (].  27)  Joshua 
(Jesus),  Son  of  Sirach,  from  Jerusalem,  and  his  grandson 
informs  us,  in  his  introduction  to  the  Greek  translation, 
that  he  came  to  Egypt  in  tlie  thirty-eighth  year  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  Ptolemy  Euergetes,  but  that  monarch  reigned 
only  twenty-five  years  (247  to  222  b.  c).  It  must  refer  to 
Physcon,  who  called  himself  Euergetes  II.,  whose  reign  ac- 
tually commenced  170  b.  c,  and,  with  several  intermissions, 
lasted  to  117  b.  c;  hence  the  translator  came  to  Alexandria 
132  B.  c.     Therefore,  it  is  within  the  bounds  of  possibility 

(1.3)  Ben  Sirach  has  been  translated  into  Hebrew  from  the  Syriac 
of  the  London  Polyglot,  by  Juda  Loeb  Ben  Seb,  end  of  the  eigii- 
teenth  century.  Wisdom  of  Solomon  has  been  translated  by  Naph- 
tali  Hartwig  Wessely,  Berlin,  1778. 

(14)  Forty-two  Hebrew  verses  are  extant,  and  others  in  the  Ara- 
maic translation  scattered  over  the  Talmud. 


J 


IN   THE    GRECIAN   PERIOD.  87 

that  the  author,  in  the  early  days  of  his  life,  had  seen  Simon 
the  Just,  who  died  292  b.  c,  whom  he  describes  (chap.  1.). 
But  he  must  not  necessarily  have  seen  him  in  order  to  de- 
scribe him,  as  he  describes  many  others  whom  he  had  not 
seen.  This  Simon  the  Just  appears  to  him  as  the  last  saintly 
high  priest.  It  will  be  safe  to  place  the  author,  255  b.  c,  be- 
fore the  author  of  Koheleth.  Jesus  b.  Sirach  was  a  man  of 
practical  wisdom,  sound  morals  and  profound  religiousness, 
who  had  learned  and  traveled  much  and  liad  searched  much 
more  in  the  Law  of  God  (Ben  Sirach  li.  13,  etc. ;  xxxi.  11 ; 
xxxix.  4).  Although  he  had  gathered  a  treasure  of  ex- 
jjerience  in  his  travels,  yet  he  found  Wisdom  to  have  her 
seat  upon  Zion,  her  power  and  resting-place  in  Jerusalem, 
and  her  roots  in  the  people  of  Israel  (Ibid  xxiv.  10-12)  (15). 
He  was  an  orthodox  writer,  who  believed  that  research  in 
the  Law  of  God  was  equivalent  to  searching  after  all  the  wis- 
dom of  all  ages  and  nations  {Ihid  xxiv.  25,  xxxix.  1,  e.  s.), 
^nd  that  the  highest  wisdom  could  be  reached  only  by  those 
who  kept  God's  commandments  (Ibid  I.  xix.  23).  He  rec- 
onmiends  to  fear  God  and  to  honor  His  priests  (Ibid  vii.  28), 
to  pay  due  regard  to  the  sages  and  traditions  of  the  nation 
(Ibid  viii.  9).  He  believed  in  Providence  and  man's  moral 
freedom  (Ibid  xi.  17),  in  revelation  and  the  election  of  Is- 
rael (Ibid  xvii.),  in  mercy  and  forgiveness  of  sin  (Ibid  xxviii). 
In  principles,  lofty  and  humane,  and  in  religion  faithful  and 
•enlightened,  Sirach's  son  taught  his  people  whatever  wis- 
dom, honor,  virtue  and  righteousness  command,  and  his 
beautiful  sentences  were  adopted  and  imitated  both  by  the 
ancient  rabbis  and  the  various  authors  of  the  Ncav  Testa- 
ment. It  is  a  good  text-book  of  the  Hebrew's  religion  and 
•ethics.  Still  it  was  not  accepted  in  the  Canon  {Tosefta 
Yedaim  II.),  and  was  reckoned  among  Apocrypha.  The 
causes  are  these  : 

1.  Ben  Sirach's  book  is  not  original  in  its  ideas.  The 
author  knew  Solomon's  Proverbs  (Ibid  xlvii.  12,  e.  s.),  and 
imitated  them,  without  reaching  the  poetical  beauty,  brev- 
ity and  force  of  the  original. 

2.  He  is  uncertain  and  wavering  in  respect  to  future  re- 
ward and  punishment,  which  was  then  an  established  l)elief 
and  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  as  is  evident  from  Koheleth,  Dan- 
iel and  various  Psalms. 

3.  His  expressions  and  figures  of  speech  concerning  wis- 
dom are  contradictory  and,  in  some  instances,  heretical. 
He   hypostasizes   wisdom   (Ibid    xxiv.  and    elsewhere),   al- 

(15)    This  is  the  first  time  we  meet  the  Shekinah  idea  in  Hebrew 
literature. 


88  LITERATURE    AND    CULTURE 

though  he  otherwise  speaks  of  it  as  the  Pharisees  of  later 
days  did  of  the  Shekinah.  He  locahzes  and  materializes  it, 
which  was  Grecian  and  in  itself  sufficient  to  exclude  his 
book  from  the  Canon. 

4.  He  speaks  in  many  instances  like  a  fatalist,  to  an 
extent  which  was  not  palatable  to  the  last  compilers  of  the 
Canon  (16). 

5.  He  says  of  himself  that  he  was  not  inspired  (In  Ben 
Seeb  xliv.  39,  40).  He  ascribes  all  his  learning  and  wisdom 
to  his  own  love  of  wisdom  and  his  exertion  to  find  it  (li.  13 
e.  s.)  and  speaks  of  prophecy  as  something  of  past  days 
(In  Ben  Seeb  xxxvi.  13,  e.  s.),  so  that  it  even  appears  that 
he  opposed  the  prophetical  pretenses  of  his  age. 

11.     The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  or  Ecclesiasticus, 

This  Pseudo-Solomonic  book  of  nineteen  chapters  is  an 
epistle  of  King  Solomon  to  the  princes  and  rulers  of  na- 
tions, in  which  they  are  admonislied  how  to  reign  in  justice 
and  wisdom,  according  to  the  will  of  God.  It  is  a  direct 
polemic  against  the  prevalent  Heathen  and  Grecian  doc- 
trine of  the  sovereignty,  irresponsibility  and  godship  of  the 
king.  It  is  a  successful  apologetic  attempt  in  favor  of  the 
Hebrew  theocratic  prhiciple,  the  belief  in  immortality,  fu- 
ture reward  and  punishment,  the  supremacy  of  divine  jus- 
tice and  Providence,  and  the  system  of  ethics  resulting 
from  these  principles.  He  advances  nothing  that  was  then 
new  in  Jerusalem,  although  he  seems  to  incline  sometimes 
to  Pythagoras  or  Plato.  His  God  is  the  same  spiritual,  in- 
visible and  infinite  Maker,  Preserver  and  Governor  of  the 
Universe,  which  He  contains  and  which  contains  Him  not, 
as  taught  by  Moses  and  the  Prophets.  '  His  immortality 
doctrine  is  a  commentary  on  Solomon's  niO?D  ^"'Vn  npl^  "  Right- 
eousness delivereth  from  death,"  as  most  all  his  doctrines 
are.  He  is,  in  style,  perfectly  biblical,  and  so  he  is  in  all 
his  ideas,  except  concerning  Satan  (ii.  24)  and  in  regard  to 
wisdom,  which  appeared  to  him  also  in  the  hypostesized 
form  of  Shekinah  ( not  as  an  intermediate  being  between  God 
and  man) ;  although  it  is  difficult  to  expound  his  poetical  fig- 
ures of  speech  with  certainty  (17).     There  is  no  cause  what- 


(16)  See  Dr.  A.  Geiger's  Urschrifl,  etc.,  p.  201 ;  Ben  Seeb's  and  M.  L. 
Gutmann's  Introductions  to  Ben  Sirach  ;  Leopold  Duke's  BlumenUse, 
etc.,  p.  23  ;  A.  F.  Daehne's  (iet^chichUiche  Darstellung,  etc.,  Zwnte  Ah- 
theil.,  p.  120,  e.  s.,  and  their  sources  as  quoted;  Franz  Delitzsch's  Zur 
Geschichte  der  Jued.  Foesie,  Sec.  26. 

(17)  Naplitali  Hartwig  Wessely  in  his  Ruach  Chen  has  supplied 
most  of  the  Biblical  passages  on  which  the  phraseology  in  the  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon  is  based. 


IN   THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD,  89 

ever  to  suppose  that  this  book  was  not  written  in  Hebrew  or 
not  in  Palestine.  It  is  not  as  popular  a  book  as  Ben  Sirach's, 
hence  it  was  not  as  popuhu'l}^  Icnown ;  still  many  of  its 
passages  passed  into  the  literatures  of  the  rabbis  and  the 
New  Testament  without  credit  given  to  the  author.  It  was 
not  accepted  in  the  Canon  for  reasons  given,  Section  10, 
hence  the  Hebrew  original  was  not  preserved.  The  book  is 
beautiful  in  style  and  sui)lime  in  its  contents,  but  it  con- 
tains no  original  truth.  It  is,  in  form,  an  introduction  to 
the  Laws  of  Moses.  The  first  ten  chapters  are  a  general  in- 
troduction, enlarging  on  the  spirit  and  essence  of  the  laws. 
The  other  nine  chapters  are  commentaries  on  the  miracles 
connected  with  Israel's  departure  from  Egypt,  with  polem- 
ics against  idolatry.  Here  the  author  stops  abruptly  at  the 
account  of  Israel's  passage  through  the  Red  Sea.  The  con- 
clusion of  this  book  has  evidently  been  lost.  Neither  Solo- 
mon, nor  Zerubabel,  nor  Philo,  as  was  variously  suj^posed, 
could  have  been  the  author  of  this  book,  which,  in  form  and 
contents,  in  style  and  doctrine,  belongs  to  Aristobul,  the 
founder  of  the  Alexandrian  Jewish  Philosophy,  of  whom 
we  treat  in  Chapter  xiii.  (18). 

12.     The  Culture  of  this  Period. 

The  literature  of  this  period  is  a  monument  of  a  high 
state  of  culture.  The  spoken  language  still  was  the  He- 
brew, although  the  Syriac  and  Greek  had  made  deep  in- 
roads upon  its  terminology  and  grammatical  forms.  This 
is  evident  especially  from  Koheleth,  the  Hebrew  chapters 
of  Daniel  and  the  Book  of  Sirach's  Son,  which  were  writ- 
ten for  the  people,  and  must  have  been  written  in  the  popu- 
lar dialect.  Again,  the  Song  of  Solomon,  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
mon, and  the  Psalms,  are  works  of  art,  and  prove  how  far 
the  Hebrews  had  advanced  in  the  beauty  of  form.  The 
Pseudo-Solomonic  literature,  which  has  its  echoes  in  the 
rabbinical  legends  of  later  dates,  is  distinguished  by  its 
high-toned  ethics  and  catholicity,  so  that  it  gave  rise,  in 
later  days,  to  the  superstition  that  the  evil  spirits  dread  the 
name  of  Solomon,  and  at  the  mentioning  of  it,  submit  to 


(18)  Whether  Aristobul  is  the  Ben  Laanaii  of  tlie  Talmud  Yeru- 
sliahui  or  tlie  Ben  Thiglau  of  the  Midrimh  Koheleth,  whose  book  is 
placed  in  connection  with  that  of  Sirach's  son,  can  no  more  be 
ascertained,  as,  besides  tlie  names,  nothing  is  known  either  about 
these  authors  or  their  books.  Tlie  same  is  the  case  witli  the  Me- 
GuiLLATH  Hassidim  ( Yerusliahiii  Berachoth  end),  of  which  one  verse 
is  quoted :  I^Tyji  D'DV  ''JnTyn  UV,  '"If  tliou  forsakest  me  (the  Law) 
one  day,  I  forsake  thee  two." 


■90  LITERATURE   AND    CULTURE 

the  will  of  the  exorcist  (Josephus'  Antiquities  viii.  ii.  5). 
The  religious  idea  appears  in  those  writings  with  a  force 
and  clearness,  especially  in  the  doctrines  of  God,  provi- 
dence, immortality  and  righteousness,  as  found  nowhere 
outside  of  Palestine.  The  only  new  idea  in  this  connection 
is  the  Shekinah  of  Ben  Sirach  and  Wisdom  of  Solomon, 
and  the  angels  as  messengers  of  God  in  the  Book  of  Daniel ; 
and  this  is  the  source  of  Jewish  Gnosticism  and  the  Kdb-  ^ 
halah.  Gnosticism  is  the  first  instance  in  the  belief  that 
metaphysical  knowledge  is  Avisdom  and  the  supreme  good 
■of  man ;  and  secondly,  that  this  wisdom  can  be  obtained  in 
a  direct  way  of  Sophia  or  wisdom  hypostatized  (of  which 
Shekinah  is  the  Judaized  idea),  or  of  angels,  as  in  Daniel 
(viii.  16,  ix.  21,  etc.),  or  of  the  Bath-kol,  a  voice  heard 
which  echoes  its  meaning  in  the  individual's  intelligence 
(Ibid  viii.  13),  or  by  intense  prayer  (Ibid  ix.).  This  Gnos- 
ticism was  chiefly  directed  to  the  Merkabah,  the  throne  of 
■God  and  the  angels  about  it,  to  which  Isaiah  vi.  and  Ezekiel 
i.  afforded  a  Biblical  starting  point ;  the  Ma'aseh  Beresh- 
ITH,  the  mysteries  of  the  Creation  according  to  Genesis  i. ; 
and  the  Aroyoth,  the  mysteries  of  human  physiology,  to 
wdiich  Leviticus  xviii.  and  xx.  afforded  the  Biblical  starting 
point.  These  theosophical,  cosmological  and  physiological 
speculations  being  communicated  orally,  hence,  received  of 
a  master,  were  afterward  called  Kabbalah,  while  the  juri- 
dical and  ethical  material  transmitted  in  the  same  manner, 
was  called  Thorah  she'be'al  pehi,  the  oral  law,  or  also  Mas- 
SORAH,  the  tradition.  No  idea  of  a  Shekinah,  angelology, 
kabbalah,  or  any  kind  of  Jewish  gnosticism  could  be  dis- 
covered prior  to  the  close  of  the  Grecian  period,  and  also, 
there  is  no  idea  of  demonology  discernible.  The  two  forces 
of  Grecism  and  Hebraism  acting  upon  the  mind,  produced 
this  deviating  line  without  being  marked  out  in  either. 

The  attention  paid  to  transcendental  and  political  sub- 
jects did  not  disturb  the  people  in  the  progress  of  agricul- 
ture, industry  and  commerce,  of  Avhich  the  books  of  this 
period  give  lively  descriptions,  in  the  Avealth  of  numerous 
individuals  and  the  refined  luxury  of  the  rich,  against 
Avhich  the  moralists  raise  their  voices.  Among  the  luxuries 
of  the  rich  there  Avere,  besides  costly  garments,  precious 
jeAvels,  elegant  houses  and  furniture,  carriages  and  sedans, 
servants,  choice  asses  and  horses,  costly  articles  of  food,  im- 
ported or  home  productions,  also  \^ocal  and  instrumental 
music  at  banquets  and  every  other  joyous  occasion,  public 
orators  and  jesters  ;  all  of  Avhich  is  expressed  in  the  books 
of  this  period,  and  points  to  a  high  state  of  agriculture,  in- 


IN   THE    GRECIAN    PERIOD.  91 

dustry  and  commerce  (19).  The  wealth  in  the  temple  treas- 
ury was  not  very  large  at  the  end  of  this  period,  which 
proves  that  the  gifts  sent  to  the  temple  from  abroad  in- 
creased largely  after  this  period.  The  fact  that  teachers 
and  physicians  had  already  formed  separate  and  more  re- 
spected classes  of  society,  and  that  the  apothecary  was 
distinguished  from  the  jDhysician  (20),  points  to  a  division 
of  the  scientific  vocations  and  a  considerable  progress  of 
society ;  as  the  extensive  travels  and  lofty  speculations  of 
the  few  afford  an  insight  into  the  advanced  spirit  of  that 
age. 


(19)  See  Dr.  L.  Herzfeld's  Handehgeschichle  der  Juden,  etc.,  Sees. 
23  and  28. 

(20)  Ben  Sirach  xxxviii.  and  xii. 


III.    The  ReYolutionary  Period. 


From  167  to  142  b.  c,  the  Hebrew  people,  under  the  successive  lead- 
ership of  Mattathia,  the  Asmonean,  and  his  sons,  Juda,  Jona- 
than and  Simon,  went  through  that  revolution,  which  is  called 
theMaccabean  war,  because  Juda  as  well  as  his  warriors  was 
called  Maccabee,  which  ended  with  the  independence  of  Judea. 
The  word  Maccabee  is  said  to  be  made  of  the  initial  letters  of  the 
Bible  phrase:  mn"'  □''^N2  HSIOD  ''O,  "Who  among  the  mighty 
is  like  thee,  O  God,"  supposed  to  have  been  the  motto  inscribed 
on  Juda's  banner.     The  kings  of  Syria  during  this  period  were : 

1.  Antiochus  Ejiiphanes, 

2.  Antiochus,  son  of  the  former,     -  162  b.  c. 

3.  Demetrius  I.,   -  -  -  -        161  b.  c. 

4.  Alexander,  ...  152  b.  c. 

5.  Demetrius  II.,  -  -  -         146  b.  c. 

6.  Antiochus,  son  of  Alexander,     -  144  b.  c. 

7.  Tryphon,         .... 


CHAPTER  I. 


Mattathia  Starts  the  Rehellion. 


1.     The  Asmonean  Family. 

Among  the  resident  priests  of  Jerusalem  (1)  there  was 
the  House  of  Joarib  or  Jehojarib,  that  was  not  of  the  high 
priest's  family.  One  branch  of  the  family  of  Joarib  was  called 
Hashmonai  or  Asmonean,  and  one  member  of  it  was  the 


(1)    I.  Chronicles  ix.  10  ;  Nehemiah  xi.  10. 


MATTATHIA    STARTS    THE    REBELLION.  93 

chief  priest,  John,  son  of  Simeon,  whose  son  was  Mattathia 
He  had  fled  with  his  family  from  Jerusalem  to  Modin,  a  town 
north-east  of  Jerusalem,  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean, in  the  province  of  Dan.  He  had  five  sons,  John  Gad- 
dis,  Simon  Thassi,  Juda  Maccabee,  Eleasar  Auran  and 
Jonathan  Apphus  (2). 

2.     Outbreak  of  the  Rebellion. 

One  of  the  king's  commissioners,  Apelles,  who  went 
about  the  country  to  apostatize  the  Hebrews,  came  also  to 
Modin,  erected  a  pagan  altar,  and  invited  the  people  to  sac- 
rifice to  the  gods,  especially  the  swine  of  Ceres,  and  eat 
from  the  sacrifices.  Only  one  old  man  indicated  obedi- 
ence to  the  king's  mandate  ;  Matthathia  slew  him,  together 
with  Apelles  and  his  men.  So  the  signal  was  given  for  ac- 
tive resistance.  Hitherto  the  Hebrews  had  offered  j^assive 
resistance  only.  Bound  by  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  in- 
tensely religious  as  the  patriots  were,  they  would  not  have 
recourse  to  arms.  Many  thousands  had  fled  to  the  mountains 
and  to  the  wilderness.  Some,  about  a  thousand  of  the 
latter,  were  brutally  slaughtered  in  the  caves  of  the  south- 
ern desert,  on  a  Sabbath  day,  when  they  would  not  fight. 
The  surviving  patriots  being  thus  driven  to  the  alternative 
of  apostacy  or  death,  Mattathia  raised  the  banner  of  active 
resistance,  and  declared  that  they  would  also  fight  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  if  necessary.  Many  patriots  came  forth  from 
the  caves  and  augmented  the  ranks  of  Mattathia,  who  led 
them  to  the  mountain  fastnesses,  where  the  king's  soldiers 
could  not  easily  attack  them,  and  initiated  the  bloody  work 
of  self-defense. 

3.    The  Work  Done  by  Mattathia. 

From  his  mountain  fastnesses,  Mattathia,  with  his  ill- 
armed  and  poverty-stricken  band  of  patriots,  made  incur- 
sions into  the  villages  and  towns.  The  heathens  and  apos- 
tates were  slain  or  expelled,  the  pagan  temples  and  altars 
destroyed,  the  children  circumcised,  the  law  of  the  land  en- 
forced, and  as  many  copies  of  the  Hebrew  manuscripts  as 
could  be  found  were  saved.  This  encouraged  and  sustained 
the  faithful,  chastised  and  cowed  the  renegades,  and  har- 
assed the  king's  troops.  They  could  not  possibl}'  withstand 
the  attacks  at  all  points  b}'  those  desperate  men,  whose  num- 
her  was  augmented  after  every  successful  attack,  and  whose 

(2)    I.  Maccabees  ii.  2. 


94  MATTATHIA    STARTS    THE    REBELLION. 

courage  grew  with  every  victory.  It  was  not  in  Mattathia's 
power  to  do  more  than  this.  He  succeeded  in  uniting  a  body 
of  men  to  set  bounds  to  the  king's  apostatizing  poHcy.  He 
was  old  and  unable  to  fight  a  Syrian  army.  He  left  the 
whole  work,  so  courageously  begun,  to  be  accomplished  by 
his  sons.  His  hour  of  death  approaching,  he  appointed  Si- 
mon, the  most  prudent  of  his  sons,  governor,  and  Juda 
Maccabee,  the  most  valiant  among  them,  general  in  the 
army,  admonished  and  encouraged  them  all,  and  died  after 
one  year's  work  in  the  service  of  his  people  (166  b.  c). 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  95 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Juda  Maccahee  Saves  the  Commonwealth. 


1.    Juda  Defeats  and  Slays  Apollonius  and  Seron. 

The  insurrectionary  patriots  now  had  a  government  of 
their  own  under  Simon,  and  tlie  nucleus  of  an  army  un- 
der Juda  Maccabee,  supported  by  his  brothers  and  other 
chiefs,  as  they  had  a  Sanhedrin  de  facto  under  Jose  b. 
Joezer.  The  pohcy  of  Mattathia  was  upheld.  Juda  sur- 
prised villages  and  towns,  mostly  at  night  time,  expelled 
the  Syrian  officers,  garrisons  and  partisans,  restored  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  left  the  places  in  possession  of  his  com- 
patriots, until  the  Syrian  governor  at  Jerusalem,  Philip, 
found  himself  unable  to  quell  the  growing  power  of  the  re- 
bellion in  the  northern  country.  The  southern  cities  up  to 
Hebron  had  been  seized  by  loyal  Idumeans,  and  the  mari- 
time cities  by  Macedonians,  Greeks,  Syrians  and  renegade 
fugitives  from  the  interior.  Juda  being  looked  upon  as  the 
chief  of  lawless  hordes,  Apollonius,  now  governor  of  Sa- 
maria, took  the  few  troops  he  had  and  the  l)ands  of  volun- 
teers he  could  raise,  and  marched  into  Judea  (166  b.  c.) 
to  put  and  end  to  the  rebellion.  He  was  met  by  .Juda 
somewhere  north  of  Jerusalem,  who  defeated  the  invading 
army  with  great  slaughter,  and  slew  also,  Apollonius,  the 
heartless  enemy  of  Jerusalem,  whose  sword  Juda  wore  ever 
after  that.  This  gave  to  the  patriots  new  courage,  plenty 
of  arms  and  provisions,  and  exposed  the  whole  of  Samaria 
to  their  incursions.  Seron,  the  governor  of  Coelosyria,  see- 
ing the  rebellion  now  right  at  the  borders  of  his  province, 
marched  southward  with  his  troops  and  as  many  volunteers 
as  he  could  raise.  He  occupied  the  strong  position  of 
Bethhoron,  where  Joshua  had  fought  a  great  battle.  There 
Juda  with  his  men,  by  forced  marches,  surprised  and  con- 


96  JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

fronted  the  enemy.  The  Hebrews  were  fatigued,  hungry 
iind  alarmed  by  the  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy.  Juda, 
who  was  as  fiery  an  orator  as  he  was  a  vahant  man,  in- 
spired them  with  confidence  and  courage.  They  fell  on  the 
enemy,  slew  eight  hundred  of  them,  slew  Seron,  and  drove 
the  shattered  army  to  the  maritime  cities.  Tliis  brought 
into  the  power  of  Juda  tlie  whole  northern  country  up  to 
the  Lebanon,  and  gave  to  his  army  the  i)roud  consciousness 
of  victory.  They  were  now  morally  certain  that  God's 
anger  was  no  longer  upon  Israel,  and  tliat  His  warriors  stood 
again  under  His  special  protection.  Juda's  fame  spread, 
his  army  grew  in  number  and  spirit,  prophets  predicted  the 
glory  returning  to  Zion,  inspired  bards  sang  the  praise  of 
Jehovah  and  His  warriors,  visions  were  seen,  dreams  were 
dreamed,  and  the  whole  religious  enthusiasm  was  aroused 
in  the  souls  of  the  Hebrews.  Even  the  king  was  now 
roused  from  his  lethargy  and  sensuality  to  Ijehold  the  fruits 
of  his  perverse  and  cruel  policy,  but  now  it  was  too  late. 
Three  causes  co-operated  in  favor  of  the  rebellion  :  the  mar- 
tial genius  of  Juda  Maccabee,  which  was  the  greatest  after 
Alexander ;  the  enthusiasm  and  superior  intelligence  of  the 
Hebrews ;  the  decline  and  corruption  of  the  Syrian  Empire. 
The  first  might  have  been  suppressed  and  the  latter  over- 
awed in  time ;  but  it  was  too  late  now. 

2.    The  King's  Designs  Concerning  the  Hebrews. 

The  death  of  two  governors  and  tlie  defeat  of  their 
armies  alarmed  the  king.  Although  deeply  engaged  in  the 
puljlic  games  at  Daphne,  and  in  debaucheries  of  all  kinds, 
he  roused  himself  to  an  appreciation  of  the  crisis.  His 
treasury  had  been  much  exhausted  by  his  extravagance ; 
he  was  indebted  to  the  Romans  2,000  talents,  and  no  taxes 
were  paid  by  the  Hebrews,  Persians  and  Medians.  He  col- 
lected a  large  army  and  divided  it  with  Lysias,  whom  he 
appointed  regent  of  Syria  and  tutor  of  his  son,  Antiochus. 
With  the  other  half  of  the  army  he  ci'ossed  the  Euphrates 
to  subject  the  Persians  and  Medians,  and  to  collect  the 
taxes.  His  command  to  Lysias  was,  to  send  an  army  into 
Judea,  to  destroy  Jerusalem  utterly,  to  slay  or  sell  into 
slavery  all  the  Hebrews,  to  divide  their  land  by  lot  among 
strangers,  and  to  extinguish  the  entire  nation.  The  king, 
with  his  army,  left  for  the  east  in  the  spring  of  165  b.  c. 

3.     The  Nicanor  and  Gorgias  Invasion. 

Lysias  appointed  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Dorymenes,  gover- 
nor of  Coelosyria,  who  sent  Nicanor  and  Gorgias,  two  expe- 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH.  97 

xienced  generals,  at  the  liead  of  a  regular  army  of  20,000 
men  (1)  to  Palestine  to  carry  out  the  king's  command. 
There  came  to  Nicanor  a  large  number  of  volunteers  from 
the  petty  nations  about  Palestine  and  renegade  Hebrews, 
so  that  the  invading  army  numbered  about  40,000  infantry 
and  7,000  cavalry.  Nicanor  invited  slave  dealers  from  the 
maritime  cities  to  come  and  buy  Hebrew  slaves,  90  for  a 
talent.  His  intention  was  to  sell  180,000,  in  order  to  raise 
2,000  talents  with  which  to  pay  the  Romans.  A  large  num- 
ber of  slave  dealers  came  with  plenty  of  money  and  shackles 
to  Nicanor's  camp,  expecting  a  flourishing  business. 

4.     Peeparations  in  Palestine. 

The  patriots  of  Palestine  also  made  their  preparations 
iluring  the  winter.  Iif  the  spring  of  the  year  (165  b.  c.) 
they  met  at  Mizpah.  A  day  of  public  humiliation  and 
worship  was  celebrated  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  in 
sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  under  the  thundering  noise  of  the 
priests'  trumpets.  The  tithe  was  brought  thither  and  Naza- 
rites  appeared  with  their  sacrifices  to  make  the  multitude  feel 
keenly  the  absence  of  the  temple  and  altar ;  and  the  multi- 
tude lamented  and  wept.  Juda,  in  his  language  of  liquid  fire, 
encouraged  the  despondent  people  to  go  and  fight  for  their 
religion,  law,  sanctuary,  homes,  life  and  liberty,  and  ac- 
quainted them  Avith  the  fact  that  they  had  already  been 
sold  or  devoted  to  the  sword.  The  army  Avas  then  organized 
according  to  the  Laws  of  Moses.  When  all  who  were  faint- 
hearted were  gone,  a  host  of  6,000  men  was  left,  which  was 
divided  into  four  corps,  commanded  by  the  four  brothers  of 
Juda,  he  being  then  their  commander-in-chief.  So  prepared, 
the  heroic  band  went  forth,  for  the  first  time  to  meet  in 
hattle  a  regular  arm}^,  drilled  in  the  tactics  of  Alexander, 
and  commanded  by  renowned  generals. 

5.     Defeat  of  Nicanor  and  Gorgias. 

The  Syrians  had  come  down  through  Pluenicia  and  were 
encamped  near  Emmaus,  on  the  plain  of  Philistia,  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains  of  Judah.  Juda  marched  from  Miz- 
pah to  meet  the  enemy  there.  His  approach  becoming 
known  to  Nicanor,  he  sent  Gorgias,  with  5,000  men,  to  sur- 
prise Juda's  camp  in  the  mountains.  On  being  informed 
thereof,  Juda  at  once  hurried  to  the  enemy's  camp,  took 

(1)  According  to  Josephus  and  I.  Maccabees  iii.  9,  Nicanor's  army 
consisted  of  40,000  infantry  and  7,000  cavalry,  and  according  to  II, 
Maccabees  viii.  9,  20,000  men,  which  entitles  to  the  above  statement. 


98  JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

Nicanor  by  surprise,  routed  him,  burnt  his  camp,  and  drove 
his  sliattered  army  to  the  j^lains  of  Edom  and  the  cities  of 
Jamnia  and  Ashdod,  before  the  return  of  Gorgias.  When  he 
returned  and  saw  the  disaster,  he  fled  with  his  troops  into 
Idumea.  The  victory  was  great,  and  no  less  great  was  the 
thanksgiving  and  psalmody  of  the  victors.  A  large  quan- 
tity of  gold,  silver,  purple  and  arms  had  fallen  into  their 
hands,  and  they  had  won  the  conviction  that  they  could 
rout  a  well-disciplined  army  commanded  by  reputed  gene- 
rals. Nicanor  passed  through  the  country  disguised,  and 
arrived,  perfectly  humiliated,  at  Antioch.  It  appears  he 
was  dismissed  from  the  Syrian  service  by  Lysias,  and  went 
to  Rome  to  Demetrius,  the  nephew  of  the  king,  with  whom 
he  returned  to  Syria  in  161  b.  c. 

6.     The  Defeat  op  Lysia%  at  Beth  Zur. 

The  victory  at  Emmaus  was  not  decisive.  In  the  spring 
of  the  year  164  b.  c,  Lysias  came  with  another  army  to 
Idumea,  collected  the  scattered  forces  of  Nicanor  and  Gor- 
gias, and  mustered,  as  was  supposed,  sixty  thousand  men, 
besides  five  thousand  horsemen.  He  marched  northward 
as  far  as  Beth  Zur,  and  encamped  in  that  arena  of  rocks 
and  narrow  passes.  Juda,  and  this  time  with  ten  thousand 
men,  defeated  also  proud  Lysias,  who  left  5,000  dead  be- 
hind, and  retreated  back  to  Antioch  with  the  conviction 
that  the  Hebrews  were  prepared  to  die  rather  than  lose 
their  liberty,  and  that  they  had  a  desperate  manner  of 
fighting. 

7.     Re-Dedication  of  the  Temple. 

Juda  was  now  absolutely  master  of  the  interior  country 
from  Dan  to  Hebron,  with  the  exception  of  the  fortified 
places,  and  among  them,  Acra,  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  in  his 
power  to  take  Jerusalem,  and  he  did  occupy  it  without  re- 
sistance. The  host  that  had  followed  him  to  the  holy  city, 
finding  the  temple  deserted  and  desecrated  by  idols,  its 
gates  burnt,  and  weeds  growing  in  its  courts,  lamented 
painfully  and  rent  their  garments.  Juda  besieged  the  cita- 
del of  Acra,  and  meanwhile  a  large  party  of  working  men 
repaired  the  temple,  tore  down  the  polluted  altar,  and  built 
a  new  one  according  to  the  Law,  made  the  most  necessar}^ 
sacred  vessels  and  priestly  garments,  destroyed  all  idols 
and  emblems  of  idolatry  in  the  city  and  on  the  Temple 
Mount,  and  began  to  repair  its  fortifications.  In  the  fall  of 
the  year  164  b.  c.  (I.  Maccabees  iv.  32),  after  three  years  of 
desolation  and  profanation,  again,  on  the  25th  day  of  Kis- 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  99 

lev,  the  temple  was  solemnly  re-dedicated,  and  the  ancient 
culte  re-introduced  according  to  Israel's  laws  and  customs. 
It  was  a  day  of  joy  to  all  patriotic  hearts.  Seven  days  of 
public  worship  and  rejoicing  were  added,  and  those  eight 
days  of  dedication  were  afterward  made  the  Feast  of  Light, 
called  Hannuhah,  for  all  Israel,  to  he  celebrated  annually 
in  memory  of  the  re-dedication  of  the  temple.  At  the  same 
time,  Beth  Zur  was  fortified  to  protect  the  country  against 
invasions  from  the  south,  and  the  siege  of  Acra  was  con- 
tinued. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Juda  was  the  acting 
high  priest,  although  this  is  not  stated  in  our  sources. 

8.      Successful  Exploits  in  Idumea  and  Ammon. 

The  Haman-like  edicts  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  to  apos- 
tatize or  to  exterminate  the  Hebrews,  had  the  good  effect  of 
arousing  the  patriots  to  heroic  deeds,  and  of  bringing  thou- 
sands from  Syria  and  Mesopotamia  to  Palestine.  They  had 
the  evil  effect  of  arousing  the  petty  nations  around  Pales- 
tine to  deadly  hatred  against  the  Hebrews,  whose  utter  de- 
struction Avas  looked  upon  as  a  loyal  duty,  to  execute  the 
mandates  of  the  god-king.  Therefore,  while  Lysias  was 
unable  to  invade  Palestine  again,  the  petty  nations  sur- 
rounding it  continued  the  hostilities  in  a  most  barbarous 
manner,  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  Hebrews. 
South  and  south-east  were  the  Idumeans,  commanded  by 
Gorgias,  and  the  Ammonites,  by  Thimotheus.  In  the 
spring,  163  b.  c,  Juda  invaded  the  eastern  part  of  Idumea 
and  the  land  of  Ammon,  and  conquered  it  as  far  south  as 
Acrabatene  and  the  southern  point  of  the  Salt  Sea,  and  east 
thereof  up  to  Jazer,  also  called  Gaser  or  Geser  (2),  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains  of  Gilead,  and  returned  then  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

9.     Successful  Exploits  in  Gilead  and  Galilee. 

After  a  few  weeks  of  rest,  Juda  was  informed  of  the  dis- 
tress of  the  Hebrews  in  Gilead  by  Timotheus,  and  of  north- 
western Galilee  by  the  inhabitants  of  Ptolemais,  Tyre  and 
Sidon.  His  protection  was  urgently  necessary,  as  the  He- 
brews of  Gilead  had  fled  to  the  fortified  places,  in  which 
they  were  not  prepared  to  hold  out  long,  and  many  of 
Gilead  and  Galilee  had  been  slain  or  captured.  Besides, 
there  was  danger  of  an  invasion  from  the  south  by  the 
Idumeans,  under  Gorgias.     After  consultation  with  the  peo- 

(2)    Josephus'  Antiq.  xii.  viii.  1 ;  I.  Maccabees  iv.  15  ;  v.  8. 


100  JUDA    MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMON^WEALTH, 

pie,  Simon  was  sent,  with  3,000  men,  to  Galilee.  Two  cap- 
tains, Asariah  and  Joseph,  Avere  left  in  Judea  with  a  suffi- 
cient force  for  defense  and  with  the  special  order  not  to  take 
the  offensive.  Juda  and  Jonathan,  with  the  main  army, 
crossed  the  Jordan  into  Gilead.  The  two  expeditions  were 
eminently  successful.  Juda  twice  defeated  and  captured 
Timotheus,  and  released  him  on  parol ;  all  important  cities  of 
Gilead  were  taken,  and  all  Gilead,  together  with  Western  Am- 
nion and  Eastern  Idumea,  became  again  a  Hebrew  province, 
called  afterward  Perea.  Simon  was  no  less  successful.  He 
drove  all  enemies  out  of  Galilee,  pursued  them  to  the  gates 
of  Ptolemais,  and  brought  back  to  Jerusalem  all  who  wanted 
to  leave  Upper  Galilee.  Asariah  and  Joseph,  however,  act- 
ing in  violation  of  orders,  attacked  Jamnia,  where  Gorgias 
commanded.  They  were  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  about 
2,000  men.  Juda  and  Simon  returning  to  Judea,  the  army 
was  concentrated  again,  and  an  attack  in  force  was  made 
on  the  Idumeans.  Hebron  was  recaptured  and  destroyed, 
and  the  Idumeans  driven  southward.  Next  Juda  subjected 
to  his  sway  a  part  of  Samaria,  and  the  martial  spirit  had 
risen  so  high  in  Israel  that  officiating  priests  also  fought  in 
the  ranks,  but  they  were  not  good  warriors  (3). 

10.     JoppE,  Jamnia  and  the  Arabs  Chastised. 

The  inhabitants  of  Joppe  had  invited  two  hundred  of 
their  Hebrew  townspeople  to  their  booths  to  a  friendly  en- 
tertainment, and  then  threw  them  into  the  sea.  A  similar 
plot  was  ripe  in  Jamnia  against  the  Hebrews.  A  horde  of 
live  thousand  Arabs  had  been  engaged  by  those  maritime 
cities  for  their  protection.  Juda  Avas  not  prepared  to  take 
those  cities,  but  he  chastised  them  severely ;  he  burnt  their 
harbors  and  shipping,  and  defeated  the  five  thousand  Arabs, 
with  whom  he  made  a  treaty  of  friendshii),  and  permitted 
them  to  return  to  their  homes  and  tents  (II.  Maccabees  xii.). 
These  exploits  and  victories  impressed  the  HebrcAvs  Avith 
self-confidence  and  the  conviction  that  they  Avere  amply  pre- 
pared for  self-defense. 

11.     Death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 

While  Juda  and  his  compatriots  Avere  engaged  in  reap- 
ing the  fruits  of  their  victories,  the  career  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  Avas  ended  by  his  unexpected  death  (163  b.  c). 
He  had  been  victorious  in  Media,  but  had  sustained  a  disas- 
trous defeat    in    Persia,   Avhile   attempting    to    ransack   a 

(3)    I.  Maccabees  v.  67. 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH.  101 

Heathen  temple  of  its  valuable  treasures  (4).  He  re- 
treated to  Ecbatana  and  there  heard  the  news  of  Juda's 
successes  over  Nicanor  and  Gorgias.  In  his  mortification 
and  rage  he  hastened  back  to  Syria,  with  the  most  horrid 
threats  of  vengeance  on  his  lips.  On  the  road  he  met  other 
messengers,  who  informed  him  of  the  defeat  of  Lysias  and 
the  re-dedication  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  and  his  rage 
became  furious.  His  chariot  upset,  and  his  body  sustained  a 
severe  shock.  He  rode  on,  however,  and  when  he  could  no 
longer  endure  the  motion,  he  had  himself  carried  on  a  litter 
till  he  was  worn  out  and  had  to  stop  at  Tabae,  on  the  line  be- 
tween Persia  and  Babylonia,  where,  after  weeks  of  horrible 
sufiering  in  body  and  mind,  he  died  of  a  most  horrid  dis 
ease,  a  miserable  and  disappointed  man  (5).  Before  his 
death,  he  appointed  Philip  as  regent  and  tutor  of  his  son, 
and  delivered  to  him  the  insignia  of  royalty. 

12.     Lysias'  Second  Invasion  of  Palestine  and  a 
Treaty  of  Peace. 

Lysias  being  informed  of  the  king's  unexpected  death 
and  the  appointment  of  Philip,  proclaimed  the  king's  son 
his  successor,  called  him  Antiochus  Eupator,  and  retained 
for  himself  the  high  position  of  regent  and  the  king's  tutor. 
Juda,  meanwhile,  made  preparations  to  take  Acra  and  drive 
the  Syrian  garrison  and  the  renegades  from  that  stronghold, 
which  commanded  the  northern  accesses  to  the  temple.  He 
pressed  them  hard  with  a  zealous  and  valiant  army  by  bul- 
warks and  engines  of  war.  The  renegades  succeeded  in  per- 
suading Lysias  to  give  them  his  support.  At  the  head  of  a 
large  army,  supposed  to  have  counted  120,000  men  and  thir- 
ty-two elephants,  Lysias  and  the  infant  king  invaded  Pales- 
tine (162  B.  c.)  by  way  of  Idumea,  concentrating  at  Beth 
Zur,  which  he  besieged.  Juda  was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege 
of  Acra  and  to  meet  the  enemy.  He  marched  to  Bethzach- 
aria,  about  ten  miles  from  Beth  Zur,  and  made  ready  for  an 
attack.  Lysias  attacked  him,  and  a  hard-fought  battle  en- 
sued. Juda  was  compelled  to  fall  back,  and  retreated  to  Je- 
rusalem, although  the  losses  of  Lysias  that  day  had  been 
very  severe.     In  that  battle,  Eleazar  Auran,  the  brother  of 

(4)  The  temple  of  Diana  in  the  city  of  Elymais,  according  to  I. 
Maccabees  vi.  1  ;  Joseph.  Antiq  xii.  ix.  1 ;  or  a  temple  at  Persepolis 
(Venus?)  according  to  II.  Maccabees  ix. 

(5)  He  confessed  the  wrongs  he  had  done  to  the  Hebrews,  and 
saw,  in  his  sudden  death,  God's  justice,  according  to  tlie  above 
sources. 


102  JUDA    MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

Juda,  died  a  hero's  death.  He  saw  one  of  the  elephants  in 
the  enemy's  ranks  armed  with  royal  breast-plates,  and,  sup- 
posing the  king  to  be  on  that  animal,  fought  his  way 
tlirough  the  enemy's  ranks,  slipped  under  the  elephant  and 
killed  him.  The  animal  fell  on  him  and  ended  the  life  of 
fi  hero.  Lysias,  however,  took  Beth  Zur,  sent  its  inhabi- 
tants naked  out  of  that  city,  garrisoned  it,  and  then  be- 
sieged Jerusalem  and  the  temple.  The  Hebrews  inside  de- 
fended the  place  heroically.  It  was  the  Sabbath  year  and 
provisions  became  scarce  in  the  city.  They  could  not  have 
held  out  much  longer,  when,  unexpectedly,  peace  Avas  of- 
fered them  by  Lysias.  He  had  been  informed  that  Philii), 
with  the  king's  army,  had  returned  from  the  East  and 
claimed  his  position.  An  honorable  peace  was  obtained. 
The  king  restored  to  the  Hebrews  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges which  they  had  enjoyed  before  the  war.  Menelaus 
was  deposed  and  condemned  to  death  in  the  tower  of  ashes 
at  Berea  in  Syria,  and  the  terms  of  peace  were  guaranteed 
by  an  oath  of  the  king  and  the  captains  with  him.  The 
Roman  embassadors,  Quintius  Memmius  and  Titus  Man- 
lius,  also  supported  this  treaty  with  the  consent  of  the  Ro- 
man people,  and  asked  the  Hebrews  to  send  messengers  to 
them  to  Antioch  (6).  The  king  did  not  keep  his  oath  en- 
tirely ;  for  on  being  received  in  the  city  as  a  friend,  he  saw  the 
strength  of  its  walls,  and  commanded  portions  thereof  to  l)e 
leveled.  Nor  did  he  fulfill  all  the  other  stipulations  of  the 
treaty ;  for,  instead  of  appointing  as  high  priest,  Onias,  the 
son  of  the  last  legitimate  high  priest,  he  appointed  Alcymos, 
a  man  of  obscure  extraction,  who  was  a  Helenist,  and  stood 
in  bad  reputation  among  the  patriots  (7).  The  mission  of 
Juda  would  have  been  fulfilled  had  Lysias  not  violated  the 
stipulations  of  the  treaty. 

13.     Demetrius,  King  of  Syria,  and  the  First  Bac- 
CHIDES  Invasion. 

Although  Lysias  and  the  king  returned  in  time  to  An- 
tioch, routed  and  slew  Philip,  and  Lysias  maintained  him- 
self in  his  high  position,  it  did  not  last  long.  In  the  year 
161  B.  c,  Demetrius,  son  of  Seleucus,  who  had  been  in 
Rome  as  a  hostage  for  twelve  years,  escaped,  came  to  Syria 
and  claimed  the  crown.  Lysias  and  the  infant  king  had  no 
friends.  They  were  slain,  and  Demetrius  was  proclaimed  king 
contrary  to  the  will  of  Rome.     Alcymos,  who  was  unable  to 


(6)  II,  Maccabees  xi.  34. 

(7)  Ibid  xiv.  3. 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH.  103 

maintain  himself  in  Jerusalem,  appeared,  in  company  with 
other  Grecian  Hebrews,  before  the  new  king,  and  they  suc- 
ceeded in  persuading  him  to  send  an  army  to  Palestine  in 
order  to  establish  his  and  Alcymos'  authority.  Bacchides 
was  charged  with  the  execution  of  this  order.  He  came 
with  Alcymos  and  an  army  to  Jerusalem,  and  promised 
peace  to  the  people,  now  tired  of  war  and  poorly  provided 
with  the  necessaries  of  life.  Having  promised,  under  oath, 
protection  to  all  who  might  come  to  him,  many  prominent 
scribes  and  leaders  of  the  Hassidim  party  came  to  him  to 
sue  for  peace.  But  Bacchides  treacherously  seized  and  slew 
sixty  of  them,  among  whom,  it  appears,  was  also  Jose  b. 
Joezer.  Then  he  marched  to  Beseth,  seized  and  slaughtered 
many  of  the  Hassidim  leaders  and  the  peaceable  citizens. 
Having  thus  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  surviving 
patriots,  he  left  an  army  with  Alcymos  and  returned  to 
Antioch. 

14.     JuDA  Rises  Again. 

After  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Lysias,  Juda  retired 
from  the  contest,  as,  by  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  all 
had  been  granted  for  which  he  had  been  fighting.  However, 
the  treacherous  conduct  of  Bacchides  and  the  Hellenistic 
inclinations  of  Alcymos,  again  roused  Juda  and  his  com- 
patriots to  active  hostilities,  and  the  horrors  of  the  civil  war 
were  renewed.  Juda  and  his  men  again  went  about  the 
■country  and  slew  the  Hellenists,  while  Alcymos  maltreated 
and  slaughtered  the  Hassidim.  Gradually,  Juda  succeeded 
again  in  collecting  so  strong  a  body  of  men  around  him 
that  Alcymos  could  no  longer  maintain  himself  in  Jeru- 
salem. He  and  the  leaders  of  his  party  again  went  to  An- 
tioch and  prevailed  on  the  king  to  invade  Palestine. 
This  time  Nicanor  was  sent  to  bring  Juda  and  his  patriots, 
living  or  dead,  to  Antioch. 

15.     Nicanor's  Invasion  and  Death. 

Nicanor,  the  same  year,  came  to  Jerusalem  at  the  head 
of  a  large  army,  and,  like  Bacchides,  he  heralded  peace. 
He  invited  Juda  to  a  conference,  and  he  came.  Terms  of 
peace  were  arranged ;  Juda  and  Nicanor  communicated  in  a 
friendly  way  till  the  jealousy  of  Alcymos  was  aroused.  He 
complained,  and  the  king  renewed  his  orders  to  Nicanor, 
who  was  unwilling  to  renew  the  combat.  He  attempted 
to  capture  Juda  treacherously  and  to  send  him  to  the  king ; 
hut   the    Maccabee   was   cautious    enough   to    thwart  this 


104  JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

scheme,  and  the  war  began  anew.  Juda  marched  at  the 
head  of  a  heroic  band  toward  Jerusalem  and  Nicanor  went 
out  to  meet  him ;  a  battle  was  fought  near  Caphersalma, 
Nicanor  was  defeated,  lost  nearly  5,000  men,  and  retreated 
to  Jerusalem.  Going  up  Mt.  Zion  to  the  temple,  trembling 
l)riests  came  out  and  showed  the  pieces  of  the  sacrifice  they 
had  made  for  the  king.  Nicanor,  in  his  rage,  cursed  them, 
blasphemed  God,  and  swore  a  terrible  oath,  that  he  would 
level  the  temple  to  the  earth  if  Juda  and  his  men  were  not 
delivered  up  to  him  (8).  The  priests  went  back  to  the  tem- 
ple and  cried  to  God  for  help,  and  the  army  of  Juda  was 
augmented  and  roused  to  a  desperate  struggle.  On  the 
thirteenth  day  of  Adar,  161  b.  c.  (9),  Nicanor  went  forth  to 
capture  Juda.  Not  far  from  the  city  he  was  furiously  at- 
tacked by  Juda's  little  army.  Nicanor  fell,  his  army  was 
routed  and  scattered  in  all  directions.  The  alarm  was  sounded 
throughout  the  land ;  from  all  towns  and  villages  armed 
multitudes  issued  forth,  and  the  invading  army  was  entirely 
annihilated.  Nicanor's  head  and  right  arm  were  brought  to 
Jerusalem,  and  the  thirteenth  day  of  Adar  was  made  a 
national  holiday,  called  Nicanor's  Day.  So  the  Hebrews 
proved  again  that  they  could  stand  patiently  any  aggres- 
sion except  interference  with  their  religion  and  their  temple.. 

16.     Embassadors  to  Rome. 

The  victory  secured  to  the  Hebrews  a  brief  period  of 
peace.  Alcymos  fled  to  Antioch,  and,  for  a  short  time, 
Juda  was  governor  and  high  priest  de  facto.  He  gained 
time  enough  to  send  an  embass}^  to  Rome  to  cultivate  the 
friendship  of  the  Senate  and  the  people  (10).     As  Demetrius 

(8)  The  year  160  b.  c.  began  next  month,  the  first  day  of  Nissan. 

(9)  It  is  narrated,  II.  Maccabees  xiv.  37,  that  Nicanor  sent  five- 
hundred  men  to  capture  a  certain  senator  whose  name  was  Razis. 
Tliis  man  was  called  father  of  his  people,  and  was  distinguished  for 
patriotism  and  benevolence.  Nicanor,  it  appears,  wanted  to  have 
that  man  in  his  power  in  order  to  mortify  his  numerous  friends  by 
maltreating  him.  The  senator,  it  appears,  occupied  a  strong  castle, 
which  was  taken  by  the  soldiers,  and  he  being  in  danger  of  being 
captured,  committed  suicide  in  a  most  heroic  manner,  in  preference 
to  falling  into  the  hands  of  Nicanor. 

(10)  I.  Maccabees  viii.;  Josephus'  Antiq.  xiii.  x.  6.  Dr.  Graetz 
doubts  the  authenticity  of  this  embassy,  on  the  ground  of  names  in- 
serted by  Josephus  which  could  not  be  historical.  But  the  account 
of  L  Maccabees  affords  no  ground  for  any  reasonable  doubt,  as  the 
writer  thereof  must  have  seen  the  tablets  which  he  describes,  and 
Josephus,  in  the  same  paragraph,  has  also  the  second  error  of  report- 
ing the  death  of  Alcymos  before  the  second  invasion  of  Bacchides. 


JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES   THE    COMMONWEALTH.  105 

was  not  acknowledged  by  the  Romans  as  king  of  Syria,  an 
embassy  of  the  warlike  and  victorious  Hebrews  must  have 
been  welcome  in  Rome.  The  embassy  was  eminently  suc- 
cessful. The  Roman  senate  acknowledged  the  Hebrews'  in- 
dependence, and  received  them  as  friends  and  allies.  De- 
metrius was  informed  of  this  fact  and  commanded  not  to 
make  war  upon  the  Hebrew  nation.  The  decree  of  the  Ro- 
man senate  was  engraved  upon  brazen  tablets  and  sent  to 
Jerusalem,  where  they  were  exhibited  in  the  temple.  Still, 
this  could  not  have  benefited  Juda  and  his  compatriots 
personally,  who  were  declared  the  heads  of  a  rel)ellion 
against  the  king,  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  Hebrew 
people.  It  was  a  faction,  in  the  judgment  of  Demetrius, 
which  had  to  be  subdued  for  the  benefit  of  the  country  and 
lawful  government ;  nor  could  the  embassy  have  come  back 
from  Rome  in  time  to  prevent  the  next  invasion  and  the 
calamities  which  it  produced. 

17.    Bacchides'  Second  Invasion — Death  of  Juda. 

Early  in  the  year  (160  b.  c),  shortly  after  the  death  of 
Nicanor,  Demetrius  sent  to  Palestine  with  Alcymos,  the 
right  wing  of  his  army,  under  command  of  Bacchides.  Gal- 
ilee was  invaded  first,  Maisaloth  and  Arbela  (11)  Avere  be- 
sieged and  taken,  and  many  of  the  inhabitants,  besides 
those  who  had  sought  refuge  in  the  caves,  Avere  put  to  the 
sword.  Without  further  resistance  the  army  reached  Jeru- 
salem in  Nissan  (first  month),  and  Alcymos  was  high  priest 
once  more.  Bacchides,  who  had  come  again  as  a  herald  of 
peace  to  the  loyal  people,  attempted  no  desecration  of  the 
temple  while  at  Jerusalem,  and  Alcymos  conducted  the  ser- 
vice in  a  lawful  manner.  The  people,  in  this  year  of  fam- 
ine, seeing  itself  re-assured  in  its  rights  and  privileges  by 
the  conduct  of  Bacchides,  settled  down  to  a  peaceful  life, 
and  Juda  saw  himself  deserted.  Three  thousand  men  had 
remained  for  a  long  time  faithful  to  their  heroic  chief. 
Gradually  they  also  disbanded,  most  likely  for  want  of  pro- 
visions, and  he  was  left  at  Bera  (12),  with  800  men.     Bac- 

(11)  Maisaloth  and  Arbela,  it  appears,  were  one  city  in  the  time 
of  Josephus.  Compare  I  Maccabees  x.  2  to  Josephus'  Antiq.  xiii.  xi. 
1.  Arbela  must  have  been  loyal  to  the  patriots ;  the  second  highest 
oflBcer  of  the  next  Sanhedrin,  Natai,  was  from  that  city ;  therefore, 
it  was  so  severely  visited  by  Bacchides. 

(12)  Not  Bezetha,  as  Josephus  has  it,  unless  Bera  was  afterward 
called  Bezetha.  Bera  or  Beroth  was  in  Benjamin  (Joshua  xviii.  25), 
near  the  Jordan  (Ibid  ix.  17),  the  place  to  which  Jotham,  Gideon's 
son,  fled  before  Abimelech  (Judges  ix.  17). 


106  JUDA   MACCABEE    SAVES    THE    COMMONWEALTH. 

chides  detailed  22,000  men  to  capture  him.  Juda's  men 
advised  him  to  retreat  and  to  wait.  He,  however,  consid- 
ered it  a  disgrace,  and  insisted  on  accepting  the  challenge. 
Once  more  he  wielded  his  irresistible  sword,  and,  with  his 
small  band,  inflicted  a  serious  blow  upon  the  enemy.  But 
his  number  was  too  small.  Although  the  right  wing,  com- 
manded by  Bacchides  in  person,  had  been  defeated,  and  re- 
treated before  Juda,  the  enemy's  left  wing  and  the  cavalry  ral- 
lied, came  up  in  his  rear,  and,  with  sword  in  hand,  he  fell  on' 
the  battle-field,  and  with  him  two  hundred  of  his  compan- 
ions. The  benefactor  of  his  people  and  savior  of  Israel's 
religion,  temple,  nationality,  law  and  honor,  lay  slain  among 
his  enemies,  and  all  good  men  in  the  laud  mourned. 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE   INDEPENDENCE.  10'/ 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Jonathan  and  Simon  Achieve  Independence. 


1.    Jonathan  and  the  Six  Hundred  Heroes. 

It  is  not  certain  that  John  and  his  two  brothers  were 
present  at  the  battle  of  Bera,  for  Bacchides  gave  them  per- 
mission to  carry  the  remains  of  Juda  to  Modain,  and  to 
l)ury  them  in  the  sepulclier  of  Fatlier  Mattathia,  which  tliey 
did.  It  was  a  few  weeks  thereafter  tliat  Jonathan  and  his 
hrothers  joined  the  six  hundred  comrades  of  Juda  who  had 
escaped  out  of  that  ])attle.  They  were  encamped  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Jordan  and  near  its  mouth,  protected 
on  the  north  and  west  by  a  swamp,  on  the  east  by  the  Jordan 
and  on  the  south  by  the  Dead  Sea.  Jonathan  was  chosen  cap- 
tain of  that  small  band  of  heroic  patriots  to  replace  the  slain 
chieftain,  the  hero  of  so  many  battles,  whose  brave  comrades 
Avere  now  fugitives  and  outlaws.  Recognizing  his  precarious 
state,  Jonathan  sent  all  his  superfluous  baggage  to  the  Nab- 
bateans,  a  friendly  tribe  of  Arabs.  John,  with  some  men, 
formed  an  escort.  The  hostile  tribe  of  Amri,  from  Medaba, 
fell  on  John,  killed  him  and  his  men,  and  captured  the  bag- 
gage. Jonathan,  after  some  time,  slew  most  of  the  Amrites, 
assembled  at  a  large  wedding ;  but  that  could  have  af- 
forded him  little  consolation  for  the  great  loss  in  so  criti- 
cal a  situation,  the  loss  of  his  brother  and  his  valuable 
companions,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  means  at  his  com- 
mand. Bacchides  soon  discovered  Jonathan's  camp  and 
went  to  capture  it.  He  attacked  the  Hebrews  on  the  Sab- 
hath  day,  expecting  to  meet  with  but  little  or  no  resist- 
ance. Nevertheless,  Jonathan  gave  him  a  warm  reception, 
fought  him  all  day,  and  when  night  had  set  in,  the  whole 
band  swam  across  the  Jordan.  In  the  morning,  detach- 
ments of  the  enemy  pursued  them,  but  were  slain  before 


108         JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE. 

they  could  rally  on  the  eastern  shore.  Bacchides  pursued 
them  no  further  and  returned  to  Jerusalem.  Jonathan  and 
his  men  fortified  themselves  in  the  oasis  of  Bethagla,  and 
remained  there  two  years. 

2.     Pacification  of  the  People. 

Bacchides  put  Alcymos  and  the  Hellenists  in  power,  and 
took  the  sons  of  the  most  prominent  patriots  as  hostages,, 
to  be  kept  at  Acra.  He  fortified  a  number  of  cities  on  the 
frontier  and  in  the  heart  of  the  country,  and  strengthened 
old  fortifications  at  Acra,  Beth  Zur  and  Gaza.  The  fortified 
places  were  provisioned,  and  garrisoned  by  Syrians  and 
Hellenists,  most  of  whom  made  their  permanent  homes 
there ;  so  that  all  apostates  and  renegades  again  lifted  up 
their  heads  proudly,  and  the  patriots  were  suppressed  and 
ill-treated.  The  taxes  imposed  on  the  country  were  very- 
oppressive  (I.  Maccabees  x.  25,  etc. ;  Antiquities  xiii.  ii.  3),. 
and  the  famine  lasted  nearly  two  years.  The  party  now  in 
power  would  not  venture  any  aggression  against  the  He- 
brews' religion.  Law  or  the  temple,  on  account  of  the  I^ysias 
treaty,  the  Roman  warning,  and  especially,  perhaps,  in. 
memory  of  the  chastisement  given  to  Nicanor  and  his  army. 
It  was  overbearing,  oppressive  and  revengeful,  so  that  the 
pacification  Avas  insincere.  Still  there  was  peace,  and  the 
nation  recruited  its  strength. 

3.     Death  of  Alcymos. 

Alcymos  was  struck  down  by  the  hand  of  Providence 
early  in  the  year  159  b.  c.  He  died  after  a  brief  illness. 
In  the  outermost  court  of  the  temple  was  a  trellis,  be- 
yond which  Gentiles,  and  also  Hebrews,  who  had  not  passed 
through  the  Levitical  lustration,  were  not  permitted  to  go. 
Alcymos  had  that  trellis  removed,  and  opened  the  Avhole  of 
that  court  to  all  classes  of  people.  It  was  an  arbitrary  deed 
committed  in  the  temple,  and  tliat  sufficed  to  excite  the  ire 
of  the  jealous  multitude.  The  trellis,  it  was  maintained,  had 
been  there  since  the  da_vs  of  the  prophets.  Alcymos  broke 
it  down,  therefore,  he  died  so  suddenly.  After  the  death  of 
Alcymos,  Bacchides  returned  to  Antioch.  No  high  priest 
was  appointed,  and  no  account  has  reached  us  as  to  how 
the  internal  government  or  the  temple  service  was  carried  on. 

4.      Third  Bacchides'  Invasion  and  Peace  with 

Jonathan. 

During  the  two  years  of  peace,  Jonathan  also  recruited 
his  strength.     His  numbers  were  gradually  augmented  by 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE.  109 

dissatisfied  patriots  and  idle  adventurers.  He  grew  up  to  be  a 
dreaded  chieftain,  as  David  did  in  the  time  of  Saul.  He 
was  not  only  the.  terror  of  the  nomadic  tribes,  but  also  of 
the  Hellenists.  As  they  persecuted  the  patriots,  he  took 
vengeance  on  their  chief  men.  After  the  death  of  Alcymos, 
that  party  being  without  a  leader,  this  state  of  affairs 
grew  worse,  and  the  Hellenists  persuaded  the  king  once 
more  to  send  Bacchides  with  an  army  in  order  to  capture 
Jonathan  and  his  men,  and  restore  peace.  They  promised 
to  capture  Jonathan  by  strategy,  but  this  failed  and  cost 
them  fifty  of  their  chief  men.  Bacchides  marched  with  an 
army  to  Bethagla,  and  besieged  it.  Jonathan  and  Simon 
were  prepared  to  meet  him.  At  the  head  of  half  their  men, 
Jonathan  marched  out  of  the  fortifications,  and  by  a  circuit- 
ous route,  came  up  in  the  rear  of  Bacchides  and  opened  an 
attack  on  him.  At  a  given  signal,  Simon  sallied  out  of  the 
fortifications  with  his  men,  destroyed  the  siege  engines, 
and  Bacchides,  pressed  between  the  two  corps,  lost  a  large 
number  of  his  men.  He  felt  that  he  was  not  prepared  to 
overthrow  Jonathan,  and  was  very  angry  at  the- Hellenists, 
who  had  misled  him  to  believe  that  it  was  an  easy  task. 
Jonathan  being  informed  of  Bacchides'  state  of  mind,  sent 
peace  commissioners  to  him,  and  peace  was  concluded. 
Jonathan  was  permitted  to  recross  the  Jordan  with  his  men, 
and  live  there  in  peace.  Bacchides  was  to  send  back  all 
Hebrew  captives  held  abroad,  and  swear  never  to  return  as 
an  enemy  to  this  country.  Thereupon,  Bacchides,  with  his 
men,  returned  to  Antioch,  and  Jonathan  recrossed  the  Jor- 
dan with  his.  He  took  up  his  residence  at  Michmash,  and 
was  tacitly  acknowledged  the  head  of  the  Hebrew  people ; 
and  the  Hellenists  were  obliged  to  keep  the  peace.  Five 
years  of  pacification  and  profound  peace  followed.  The  ex- 
citement abated,  and  a  change  of  political  opinions  ensued. 
The  Hellenists,  as  a  party,  almost  disappeared ;  so,  also,  did 
the  Hassidim.  The  former  had  lost  all  and  the  latter  had 
gained  all  for  which  the  fighting  Avas  done,  viz. :  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the  fathers. 
However,  new  parties  soon  grew  out  of  this  new  political 
situation. 

5.    Jonathan,  High  Priest. 

Demetrius  had  a  castle  built,  in  which  he  kept  aloof 
from  the  people,  and  lived  in  indolence  and  sensual  gratifi- 
cation. The  Syrians  hated  him,  as  did  the  Hebrews.  Alex- 
ander Balas,  his  cousin,  the  son  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
or,  according  to  Diodor  of  Sicily,  and  others,  an  impostor 


110         JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE   INDEPENDENCE. 

resembling  that  prince,  succeeded  in  collecting  an  army  and 
ships  and  effecting  a  landing  at  Ptolemais,  where  he  was 
received  and  proclaimed  king  of  Syria  (152  b.  c).  This 
event  roused  Demetrius  from  his  lethargy.  He  made  prep- 
arations to  fight  his  antagonist.  Jonathan  was  the  only 
man  in  Palestine  who  could  organize  a  military  force  of 
Hebrews,  and  they  were  reputed  soldiers.  Alexander  Vjeing 
at  Ptolemais,  they  could  easily  give  him  their  support. 
Therefore,  Demetrius  sent  a  flattering  letter  to  Jonathan, 
giving  him  permission  to  raise  and  equip  an  army,  to  fortify 
Jerusalem,  and  ordered  that  all  hostages  in  Acra  be  delivered 
up  to  Jonathan.  This  struck  terror  to  the  Syrian  garrisons 
of  the  various  fortified  cities,  and,  except  those  in  Acra  and 
Beth  Zur,  they  left  the  country.  The  hostages  delivered  up 
to  Jonathan  were  sent  to  their  respective  homes,  arms  were 
forged,  Jonathan  organized  an  army  and  began  to  fortify 
Jerusalem  with  square  stones.  Alexander,  who  could  ill 
afford  to  lose  so  valuable  an  ally,  sent  a  letter  to  Jonathan, 
together  with  the  purple  robe  and  the  diadem,  api^ointing 
him  high  priest  (and  chief  ruler)  of  the  Hebrews,  with  the 
title  of  "  friend  of  the  king."  Jonathan  accepted  this  offer, 
and  the  first  day  of  the  Feast  of  Booths  (152  b.  c.)  he  ap- 
peared in  the  temple  in  the  sacerdotal  robes  as  high  priest, 
and  was  enthusiastically  received  by  the  assembled  multi- 
tude. Demetrius,  on  hearing  this,  wrote  a  second  letter  to 
Jonathan,  promising  him  and  his  people  much  more  than 
Alexander  had  done.  But  his  offers  were  refused  and  no 
response  made.  The  man  who,  eight  years  previous,  had 
swam  the  Jordan  under  the  cover  of  darkness,  a  hunted  and 
condemned  rebel,  now  stood  at  the  head  of  his  people,  the 
high  priest  and  commander-in-chief,  almost  an  independent 
prince,  by  the  will  of  his  countrymen  and  Avith  the  consent 
of  the  king.  That  memorable  Feast  of  Booths  gave  rise  to 
Psalm  cxviii.,  in  which  the  history  of  those  eight  years  and 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  multitude  are  reflected  in  inspiring 
strains. 

6.     Jonathan  Honored  by  Two  Kings. 

Alexander  defeated  Demetrius,  who  was  slain.  The  new 
king  married  Cleopatra,  the  daughter  of  Ptolemy  Philome- 
tor.  The  wedding  was  celebrated  at  Ptolemais.  Jonathan 
repaired  thither  and  presented  himself,  in  person,  to  the 
new  sovereign.  His  enemies  had  also  come  to  be  heard. 
Jonathan  and  his  rich  gifts  so  pleased  the  king  that  the 
highest  honors  were  bestowed  on  the  Hebrew  high  priest, 
who  sat  in  the  purple  robe  with  the  king  on  his  throne,  and 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE   INDEPENDENCE.  Ill 

at  the  wedding,  had  his  seat  between  the  two  sovereigns  of 
Syria  and  Egypt.  Confirmed  in  all  his  titles  and  appointed 
governor  of  Judea,  Jonathan  returned  to  Jerusalem,  and  his 
enemies  were  silenced. 

7.     Re-organization  of  the  Sanhedrin. 

No  Sanhedrin  is  mentioned  during  the  eight  years'  inter- 
regnum. It  appears  again  with  the  supremacy  of  Jona- 
than (1).  The  last  chief  of  the  provisionary  Sanhedrin,  Jose 
h.  Joezer,  was  slain  by  Alcymos  or  Bacchides.  The  col- 
league of  the  former,  Jose  b.  John,  of  Jerusalem,  may  have 
continued  to  preside  over  that  body,  but  this  is  uncertain. 
With  the  supremacy  of  Jonathan,  the  re-organization  of  the 
commonwealth,  on  strictly  national  principles,  must  have 
taken  place,  which  includes  the  functions  of  the  Sanhedrin. 
Jonathan,  and  after  him  his  brother,  Simon,  with  the  title 
of  Heber,  -)3n,  or  "  Unificator,"  as  found  on  the  coins  of 
Simon  and  his  successors,  must  have  presided  over  the  San- 
hedrin, which,  on  that  account,  was  called  n'^jotj^n  h^  1^  ^'^^ 
"  The  High  Court  of  the  Asmoneans."  So  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  was  completely  restored,  as  the  Hassidirrt  wished. 
The  Law  of  Moses  was  lawfully  enforced  by  the  proper 
authorities,  a  pious  and  patriotic  high  priest  watched  over 
the  divine  worship  in  the  temple,  and  the  dispensation  of 
justice,  peace  and  righteousness  prevailed  ;  the  Thorah  was 
read  and  taught  again  all  over  the  land  by  pious  scribes,  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  was  revealed  again  upon  Mount  Moriah 
and  His  grace  over  Israel,  and  no  foreign  power  or  poten- 
tate interfered  with  Israel's  domestic  affairs.  National  in- 
dependence was  certainly  not  on  their  programme ;  and  so 
the}^  had  all  they  wished.  Therefore,  the  old  party  divisions 
Vere  obliterated,  and  those  Hebrews  who  were  with  the  Sj'rian 
garrisons  in  Acra  and  Beth  Zur  were  known  only  as  rene- 
gades and  apostates.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that 
many  of  the  Hellenists  left  the  country  and  settled  down 
in  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor. 

8.     Jonathan  Defeats  Apollonius  Daus  (148  b.  c). 

There  was  peace  and  prosperity  among  the  Hebrews 
when  Demetrius,  the  son  of  King  Demetrius,  returned  from 
Crete  to  Syria.  Alexander,  who  had  been  feasting  and  de- 
bauching in  Phoenicia  ever  since  his  wedding,  was  roused  to 
action.     He  went  to  Antioch  to  make  his  jjreparations.    His 

(1)    I.  Maccabees  xi.  23. 


112  JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE. 

governor  of  Coelos3a-ia,  Apollonius,  the  son  of  the  Apollonius 
slain  by  Juda,  revolted  and  followed  the  fortunes  of  Demet- 
rius II.  This  Apollonius,  a  wicked  braggart  like  his  father, 
came  through  Phoenicia  to  Jamnia  with  an  army,  and  sent 
an  insulting  challenge  to  Jonathan,  who  came  at  once  with 
a  well-equipped  army  of  ten  thousand  men,  including  Si- 
mon's corps,  and  took  the  city  of  Joppe.  On  the  plain,  the 
two  armies  met,  and  a  battle  was  fought,  in  which  both  sides 
showed  great  bravery  and  strategy ;  still  Apollonius  was 
routed  and  many  of  his  army  fled  to  Ashdod,  hotly  pur- 
sued by  the  Hebrews.  The  Hebrews  took  Ashdod  also,  and 
the  enemy  having  sought  refuge  in  the  temple  of  Dagon,  that 
temple  was  burned  down.  Next  Jonathan  marched  to  Aska- 
lon,  and  was  kindly  received  in  that  city.  So  the  whole 
maritime  coast  was  again  under  his  control,  and  he  returned 
to  Jerusalem.  King  Alexander,  whose  enemies  Jonathan 
had  fought,  conferred  honors  on  Jonathan  and  sent  him  the 
golden  buckle,  which  was  a  mark  of  distinction  for  the 
king's  kinsmen  only. 

9.     Demetrius  II. 

Alexander  not  being  able  to  overthrow  Demetrius,  asked 
assistance  of  his  father-in-law.  Ptolemy  Philometor  came 
with  a  large  army  and  navy  to  the  assistance  of  his  son-in- 
law.  Passing  through  Ashdod,  its  Gentile  inhabitants 
showed  him  the  ruins  of  the  Dagon  temple  and  the  suburbs, 
also  the  bones  of  the  slain,  in  order  to  incense  him  against 
Jonathan.  But  it  was  of  no  avail.  When  Jonathan  met  the 
Egyptian  king  at  Joppe,  he  was  well  received,  and  went  with 
Philometor  as  far  as  the  river  Eleutheros.  By  the  treach- 
ery of  Alexander,  however,  events  took  a  peculiar  turn ; 
Philometor  took  his  daughter  from  Alexander  and  gave  her 
to  Demetrius.  Alexander  fled  to  Arabia  and  was  assassi- 
nated, and  Demetrius  II.  was  king  of  Syria  (146  b.  c). 

10.     Demetrius  II.  Sells  his  Claims  on  Judea  for  Three 
Hundred  Talents. 

While  the  two  kings  of  Syria  made  war  upon  one  another, 
Jonathan  besieged  Acra  once  more.  The  war  closing  before 
Acra  had  been  taken,  the  renegades  in  that  castle  sent 
deputations  to  the  new  king  and  asked  his  assistance.  De- 
metrius came  angrily  to  Ptolemais  and  summoned  Jonathan 
thither.  He  appeared  in  company  with  some  distinguished 
senators  and  priests,  and  with  rich  gifts,  and  made  a  favor- 
able impression  on  the  king,  whose  anger  changed  to  the 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE   INDEPENDENCE.  113 

highest  grace.  He  confirmed  Jonathan  in  all  his  high  of- 
fices, and  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  "  the  first  friend  of 
the  king."  Jonathan,  taking  advantage  of  the  king's  favor 
and  Ins  momentary  poverty,  offered  him  three  hundred  tal- 
ents for  all  taxes  and  tributes  hitherto  paid  to  Syria,  of  Ju- 
dea  and  its  Samaritan  districts  of  Lydda,  Apheremon  and 
Raraathen,  formerly  paid  to  Syria.  The  king  accepted  the 
offer,  received  the  money,  signed  and  sealed  the  documents, 
and  Judea,  with  its  three  Samaritan  districts,  was  released 
from  all  foreign  tribute. 

11.    The  Hebrews  Defend  the  King  at  Antioch. 

Demetrius  II.  was  of  a  peaceful  disposition.  He  dis- 
missed a  large  portion  of  his  army.  Still  the  jieople  of 
Antioch  hated  him.  Jonathan  sent  an  embassy  to  him,  re- 
questing him  to  recall  the  garrison  of  Acra,  which  was  a  point 
of  their  treaty.  The  king  replied  that  he  would  do  that  and 
€ven  more  whenever  it  would  be  in  his  power.  But  at  present 
he  was  hard  pressed  by  rebellious  Antiochians,  and  demanded 
of  Jonathan  three  thousand  men  to  sul)due  the  rebellion. 
Times  had  changed.  Three  thousand  Hebrew  soldiers  were 
sent  to  Antioch  to  protect  the  king,  and  they  did  protect 
him.  The  rebellion  was  overcome.  The  citizens  of  An- 
tioch sued  for  peace  after  many  of  them  had  been  slain. 
Peace  was  restored  and  the  Hebrew  soldiers  returned  to 
their  country ;  but  Demetrius  kept  none  of  his  promises, 
and  was  desirous  of  annulling  the  treaty  made  at  Ptolemais. 
Still  Jonathan  managed  to  keep  the  peace. 

12.    Antiochus  Theos,  King  of  Syria. 

Demetrius  II.  had  no  time  to  carry  out  his  treacherous  de- 
signs against  the  Hebrews.  For  Diodotus  Tryphon,  who  had 
been  governor  of  Antioch  under  Alexander  and  Demetrius  II., 
conceived  a  plot  to  place  himself  on  the  throne  of  Syria. 
Demetrius  had  dismissed  many  of  his  soldiers  and,  contrary 
to  custom,  paid  them  no  wages  in  time  of  peace.  They 
augmented  the  number  of  his  enemies.  Tryphon,  observ- 
ing this  state  of  affairs,  went  to  Arabia,  persuaded  Zabdiel, 
who  was  the  guardian  of  .Alexander's  son,  the  boy  An- 
tiochus, to  intrust  the  young  prince  to  his  care,  as  he  would 
place  him  on  the  throne  of  his  country.  Zabdiel  consented  ; 
Tryphon  took  the  prince  and  brought  him  into  Syria.  The 
dissatisfied  soldiers  and  citizens  su]:»ported  him,  an  army 
was  organized,  a  battle  was  fought,  the  forces  of  Demetrius 
were  routed,  his  elephants  fell  into  the  hands  of  Tryphon, 


114         JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE. 

who  took  Antioch ;  Demetrius  tied  to  Seleucia,  and  the  boy 
Antioehiis,  surnamed  Theos,  was  placed  on  the  throne  of 
Syria  (144  b.  c). 

13.    Jonathan  and  Simon  in  Favor  of  Antiochus. 

The  power  of  Demetrius  was  not  crushed  yet,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  tha  plans  of  Tryphon  to  secure  the  support 
of  the  Hebrews.  Therefore,  a  royal  decree  was  sent  to 
Jonathan,  confirming  him  in  his  dignities  of  high  priest  and 
governor  of  Judea,  and  in  the  possession  of  the  three  Sa- 
maritan districts,  to  which  a  fourth  (Jamnia?)  was  added. 
He  Avas  permitted  to  wear  the  purple  and  the  golden  buckle, 
with  the  title  of  "  the  king's  first  friend ;"  to  use  the  golden 
vessels  at  his  table,  and  to  keep  a  princely  household. 
Jonathan  accepting  these  offers  and  declaring  in  favor  of 
Antiochus,  was  commissioned  to  raise  an  army  of  Hebrews 
and  Gentiles  to  subject  the  country  to  the  new  king ;  and 
Simon  was  appointed  the  king's  general  for  the  East,  from 
the  ladder  of  Tyre  to  Egypt.  It  was  a  peculiar  change 
of  events.  The  rebel  chiefs  were  now  the  king's  right-hand 
power.  It  was  a  serious  mistake  on  the  part  of  Jonathan,, 
but  he  could  place  no  confidence  in  Demetrius,  wdio  had  de- 
ceived him,  and  could  only  embrace  the  cause  of  Antiochus 
Theos. 

14.      Successes  of  Jonathan  and  Simon. 

It  was  not  difficult  for  these  two  renowned  warriors  to 
raise  and  discipline  a  large  army.  Jonathan  soon  marched 
at  the  head  of  an  army  toward  the  sea  coast,  and  met 
with  no  resistance  till  he  came  to  Gaza.  He  found  this  city 
with  its  gates  closed,  and  besieged  it.  The  damage  to  the 
district  and  suburbs  of  Gaza  by  sword  and  fire  was  sO' 
heavy  that  its  garrison  capitulated,  and  Gaza  declared  in 
favor  of  Antiochus.  The  most  prominent  citizens  gave 
their  sons  as  hostages,  and  Jonathan  took  them  with  him 
to  Jerusalem.  Next  he  marched  across  the  Jordan  and 
then  as  far  north  as  Damascus,  to  enforce  submission  to 
the  new  king,  and  he  Avas  successful  everywhere.  Mean- 
while, the  forces  of  Demetrius  re-organized  and  invaded 
Galilee  in  order  to  bring  Jonathan  out  of  Syria.  The 
enemy  was  encamped  at  Kedesh,  on  the  northern  borders 
of  Galilee.  Leaving  Simon  behind  to  protect  Judea,  Jona- 
than led  his  forces  to  the  nortliern  shore  of  Lake  Genesareth. 
A  battle  was  fought  on  the  plain;  Jonathan  having  been 
outmaneuvered.    part    of  his    army    fled,   panic     stricken. 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE.  115 

However,  Jonathan  and  his  most  valiant  captains  attacked 
the  enemy  with  success ;  his  troops  rallied  and  the  enemy 
was  defeated  with  a  loss  of  three  thousand  men.  Mean- 
wliile,  Simon  had  laid  siege  to  Beth  Zur,  held  by  a  force  of 
Demetrius.  The  garrison  capitulated  and  were  permitted  to 
join  the  shattered  forces  of  their  master.  The  success  was 
complete.  The  two  brothers  had  carried  out  their  mission 
in  behalf  of  their  king,  and  the  Hebrews  -of  the  four  prov- 
inces, viz. :  Judea,  Samaria,  Galilee  and  Perea  beyond  Jor- 
dan up  to  Damascus  and  down  to  Gaza,  were  once  more, 
as  in  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon,  masters  of  their 
country. 

15.    An  Embassy  to  Rome  and  Sparta. 

Being  absolutely  in  possession  of  all  Palestine,  with  a 
military  force  superior  to  any  of  the  two  kings  of  Syria, 
Jonathan  could  only  think  of  preparing  for  independence  at 
the  next  turn  of  political  affairs.  To  this  end,  the  favor  of 
the  Romans  was  indispensable,  for  their  authority  in  Syria 
and  Egypt  was  well  established.  Therefore,  Jonathan  sent 
embassadors  to  Rome  to  renew  the  existing  treaties,  which 
might  have  been  affected  by  Jonathan's  embracing  the  cause 
of  Antiochus  Theos.  The  embassy  was  eminently  successful 
in  Rome  in  securing  the  friendship  of  the  senate  for  the 
Hebrew  people.  According  to  instructions,  the  embassa- 
dors also  went  to  Sparta  to  renew  the  league  of  friendship 
with  the  Lacedaemonians  and  other  nations.  They  were  also 
successful  in  this  mission.  This  was  the  prelude  to  the  in- 
dependence of  Palestine. 

16.     Other  Successes. 

Meanwhile,  the  army  of  Demetrius  had  been  re-organ- 
ized and  reinforced,  and  made  another  attempt  at  over- 
throwing Jonathan.  They  had  come  to  the  borders  of  Pal- 
■  estine  and  fortified  a  camp  at  Amathis.  Jonathan,  with  his. 
forces,  was  not  far  from  them.  Having  learned  the  enemy's- 
intention  to  surprise  and  attack  his  camp,  he  was  prepared 
for  them,  and  they  met  with  an  unexpected  repulse.  Find- 
ing the  Hebrews  so  well  prepared,  the  Syrians  fled  hur- 
riedly during  the  niglit,  so  that  they  could  not  be  over- 
taken next  day.  Jonathan,  by  a  detour,  also  conquered  an 
Arabian  tribe  in  the  north-east,  and  then  returned  to  Jeru- 
salem. The  sea  coast  cities  taking  advantage  of  the  re-ap- 
pearance of  the  forces  of  Demetrius,  revolted  again.     But 


116  JONATHAN    AND    SIMON    ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE. 

before  Jonathan's    return,  Simon  overwhelmed    them,  and 
placed  a  garrison  at  Joppe. 

17.     Other  Preparations  for  Independence. 

The  two  brothers  having  returned  to  Jerusalem,  the  San- 
hedrin  was  convoked  and  tne  necessary  laws  were  enacted  to 
strengtlien  its  fortifications  and  other  cities,  also  to  fortify 
cities  hitherto  unprovided  with  works  of  defense.  A 
wall  or  ditch  between  the  city  and  Acra  was  to  be  con- 
structed in  order  to  cut  off  its  garrison  and  the  renegades 
from  all  communication  with  the  city.  The  work  was 
begun  at  once.  Jonathan  superintended  it  in  Jerusalem 
and  Simon  in  the  country.  Before,  however,  the  embassy 
could  have  returned  from  Rome,  or  the  fortifications  could 
liave  been  constructed,  a  catastrophe  changed  the  situation. 

18.     Jonathan  Captured. 

Tryphon  was  ready  to  dispose  of  the  young  king  and  to 
mount  the  Syrian  throne.  Jonathan  was  in  his  way,  and 
he  was  to  be  put  out  of  the  way  by  vile  treachery.  Try- 
phon came  with  an  army  to  Bethshan,  and  Jonathan  was 
ready  with  40,000  men  to  meet  him.  Tryphon  dreaded  a 
battle,  and  sent  presents  and  hypocritical  declarations  of 
friendship  to  Jonathan,  and  succeeded  in  entrapping  him. 
He  went  to  Ptolemais  with  a  thousand  men  by  invitation, 
to  have  a  friendly  interview  with  Tr^'phon.  On  his  arrival 
there  the  gates  were  closed,  Jonathan's  men  were  massacred, 
and  he  was  captured  (143  b.  c).  Tryphon  despatched  a 
strong  force  to  overwhelm  the  Hebrews  in  the  field,  who 
were  now  without  a  commander-in-chief;  but  they  retreated 
in  time  and  reached  Jerusalem. 

19.     Simon  Dictator — Death  op  Jonathan. 

The  people  of  Jerusalem,  at  these  tidings,  yielded  to  fear 
and  sadness.  They  knew  the  hostile  nations  around  them 
would  rise  up  against  them,  and  the  treacherous  Tryphon, 
with  a  strong  army,  Avas  at  the  door.  Simon  did  not  lose 
his  courage.  He  convoked  the  people  to  the  Temple  Mount, 
and  offered  them  his  services.  He  said  he  was  no  better 
than  his  father  and  his  four  brothers,  and  like  them  he  was 
ready  to  die  for  his  people.  He  was  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived and  proclaimed  chief  ruler  of  the  nation,  or  rather  a 
dictator  for  the  time  being.  The  fighting  men  rallied  about 
him,  and  he  went  to  work  with  Asmonean  energy.  He  sent 
one  captain,  Jonathan,  son  of  Absalom,  to  Joppe,  to  secure 


JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE   INDEPENDENCE.  117 

the  sea  coast  cities  against  Trypbon,  while  he  continued  the 
fortification  of  Jerusalem  and  making  ready  for  active  ser- 
vice. Tryphon,  Jonathan  in  bonds  with  him,  moved  his 
army  into  Judea.  Simon  met  him  at  Adida,  which  he  had 
fortified.  Tryphon  seeing  his  schemes  crossed  by  the  un- 
expected energy  of  the  Hebrews,  once  more  resorted  to  hy- 
pocrisy and  treachery.  He  sent  word  to  Simon  that  he 
would  release  Jonathan  in  consideration  of  one  hundred 
talents  paid  down,  and  two  of  Jonathan's  sons  sent  him  as 
hostages.  Simon  suspected  the  sincerity  of  his  enemy  in 
this  offer  also.  He  called  a  council  of  war,  and  laid  Try- 
phon's  propositions  before  it.  They  were  accepted.  The 
money  and  the  hostages  Avere  sent,  and  Tryphon  did  not 
keep  his  promise.  He  went  with  his  army  southward  to 
Idumea  to  invade  Judea  from  that  side,  followed  closely  by 
Simon.  The  garrison  of  Acra  having  sent  word  to  Tryphon 
that  in  order  to  rescue  them  he  must  hasten  to  Jerusalem, 
he  made  ready  to  proceed  there  at  once.  That  night,  how- 
ever, a  heavy  snow  fell,  which  made  it  impossible  to  reach 
Jerusalem.  Tryphon  retreated  through  Gilead  into  Coelo- 
syria,  marking  his  path  by  smoking  ruins  and  massacred 
men.  In  Gilead,  he  also  slew  Jonathan  and  had  him  buried 
at  Bascama.  Then  he  returned  to  Antioch,  afterward  slew 
the  young  king,  and  placed  upon  his  own  head  the  crown  of 
Syria. 

20.     Simon  Succeeds  Jonathan. 

All  Israel  was  in  deep  mourning.  The  man  who  had 
built  up  the  independence  of  his  people  had  been  treacher- 
ously slain.  Simon,  who  had  successfully  crossed  the 
schemes  of  Tryphon,  was  now  the  most  honored  and  most 
powerful  man  in  the  land.  Syria  had,  in  fact,  no  king. 
Tryphon  was  a  crown-robl)er,  and  Demetrius  II.  was  power- 
less. The  time  was  favorable  to  gain  the  independence  of 
Palestine.  Simon,  therefore,  while  he  continued  energetic- 
ally to  fortify  the  cities,  sent  to  Bascama  to  bring  the  re- 
mains of  Jonathan  to  Modain,  and  buried  them  in  the  As- 
monean  sepulcher,  over  which  he  afterward  erected  the  won- 
derful mausoleum  of  white  marble,  with  its  seven  massive 
columns,  and  which  was  considered  a  wonder  of  architect- 
ure by  Josephus  and  Eusebius.  Tryphon  having  sent  an 
embassy  to  Rome  with  costly  presents,  and  the  embassadors 
of  Jonathan  not  j^et  having  returned,  Simon  also  sent  em- 
bassadors to  Rome  and  Sparta,  with  the  same  instructions 
which  had  been  given  by  Jonathan.  In  Rome,  the  embass- 
adors of  Tryphon  were  dismissed  with  a  dubious  reply,  and 


118  JONATHAN   AND    SIMON   ACHIEVE    INDEPENDENCE. 

those  of  Simon  received  the  highest  honors  and  were  dis- 
missed with  a  treaty  highly  encouraging  to  Simon  and  his 
people.  Once  knowing  the  feeling  in  Rome,  Simon  sent  an- 
other embassy  to  Demetrius  acknowledging  his  title  to  the 
Syrian  crown,  and  offered  him  his  assistance  against  Tryphon 
on  condition  that  he  acknowledge  the  independence  of  Judea. 
Demetrius  accepted  the  pro2)osition,  and  sent  to  Simon  the 
royal  decree,  with  general  anniesty  for  all  past  offenses,  de- 
claring the  independence  of  Judea,  dated  170  s.  e.  (142  b.  c). 

21.   Judea  Independent — Simon,  Prince  and  High  Priest. 

Simon  captured  and  fortified  Gazara,  Beth  Zur  and 
Joppe.  He  built  a  house  for  himself  at  Gazara,  made  of 
Beth  Zur  an  armory,  and  improved  the  harbor  of  Joppe. 
Returning  from  this  expedition,  he  was  received  in  Jeru- 
salem Avith  unbounded  enthusiasm.  The  independence  of 
Judea  was  acknowledged  by  the  legitimate  king  of  Syria 
and  the  Romans,  and  Simon  was  its  prince  and  high  priest, 
after  thirty-five  of  the  most  eventful  j'ears  in  the  history  of 
the  Hebrews.  Now  the  Seleucidan  era  was  replaced  by  the 
era  of  the  Hebrew  prince,  and  all  public  documents  were 
dated  in  the  first,  second,  etc.,  year  of  Simon  or  other  princes 
after  him.  Mattathia  had  aroused  the  patriots  to  active 
resistance.  Juda  made  a  nation  of  warriors  out  of  patient 
and  religious  agriculturists  and  merchants,  and  re-conqucred 
his  people's  rights,  sanctuary  and  nationality.  Jonathan 
cultivated  the  feeling  of  independence  stirred  up  by  the 
war,  in  defense  of  the  sanctuar}^  educated  the  people  up  to 
this  new  state  of  affairs,  and  organized  an  army  out  of  the 
irregular  fighting  men.  Simon  at  once  realized  the  hopes 
of  Jonathan  and  accomplished  the  task  without  much  re- 
sistance. Juda  was  an  enthusiastic  lion,  Jonathan  the  or- 
ganizing politician,  and  Simon  the  prudent  statesman. 


LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE.  119 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


Literature  and  Culture^  at  Home  and  Abroad^  of  the 
Revolutionary  Period. 


1.    The  Political  Parties  or  Sects. 

Political  parties  and  religious  sects  were  identical  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  among  the  ancient  Hebrews  ;  because 
the  God  whom  they  Avorshiped  was  also  the  king,  legislator 
and  judge  of  the  nation  and  every  individual  thereof,  by 
whatever  persons  He  was  visibly  represented  in  either  of 
these  various  functions,  and  His  kingdom  is  in  time  and 
eternity.  Revolutions  decide  old  issues  and  produce  new 
ones,  which  are  the  causes  of  new  parties.  "  At  this  time," 
says  Josephus,  viz. :  toward  the  end  of  Jonathan's  adminis- 
tration (about  145  B.  c),  "  there  were  three  sects  among  the 
Jews  :  Pharisees,  Sadducees  and  Essenes."  He  intends  to 
say  that  before  this  particular  time,  these  sects  were  not 
known.  They  originated  at  that  particular  time,  and  then 
they  differed  only  in  regard  to  fate  (1).  There  is  no  men- 
tion made,  in  any  record,  of  these  names  of  parties  or  sects 
prior  to  the  notice  of  Josephus,  and  they  can  not  be  ante- 
dated. Parties  so  strongly  marked  could  have  gone  forth 
from  the  revolution  only.  Their  names  are  significant  of 
their  particular  principles. 

2.     The  Pharisees. 

Pharisees,  Hebrew  (n''tJ'1"iQ),  "the  Separated,"  signifies 
men  who  separated  themselves  from  all  that  is  Levitically 
unclean ;  hence,  from  contact  with  Gentiles,  Hebrews  who 
adhered  not  to  those  observances,  unclean  animals  and  the 


(1)     Antiquities  xiii.  v.  9. 


120  LITERATURE  AND  CULTURE 

hides  thereof,  diseased  animals  and  men,  or  skeletons 
thereof.  This  party,  according  to  its  religious  ideas,  was  nu- 
merous in  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  Antiochus  the  Great  (2), 
and  must  have  increased  during  the  revolution,  when  the 
strictest  observance  of  the  national  laws  and  customs  was 
the  watchword  of  the  patriots.  The  origin  of  these  views 
is  in  Ezra's  "  Commoners  "  (ntDVD  ''K'JN')>  who  being  demi- 
priests,  at  least  one  week  annually,  learned  and  practiced 
the  laws  of  Levitical  cleanness,  and  with  the  form  of  the 
temple  worship,  carried  them  among  the  people ;  only  that 
those  men  were  no  party  or  sect  before  this  period.  The 
scribes  in  and  outside  of  the  Sanhedrin  expounded  the 
Law,  multiplied  its  provisions  in  accordance  with  the 
public  requirements  and  feelings,  and  were  especially  rig- 
orous on  the  point  of  Levitical  cleanness.  With  these  Has- 
sidim,  of  course,  the  knowledge,  expounding  and  practicing 
of  the  Law,  religious  observances  and  deeds  of  charity, 
were  the  main  objects  of  man's  existence  ;  the  scribes,  cus- 
todians and  expounders  of  the  Law  must  have  been  their 
highest  authorities ;  and  Israel's  national  existence  must 
have  appeared  to  them  to  have  this  one  purpose  only,  viz. : 
to  i)reserve  and  promulgate  the  Law.  The  principal  func- 
tions of  the  government  could  only  have  been,  in  their  opin- 
ion, the  enforcement  of  the  Law,  the  upholding  of  the  culte, 
and  the  protection  of  the  nation  in  the  free  exercise  of  its 
religion.  The  religious  idea  jjredominating  among  them^ 
they  were  naturally  impractical  politicians.  As  long  as  the 
sanctuary  and  the  Law  were  in  danger,  they  fouglit  bravely, 
as  men  and  patriots.  When  the  Lysias-Juda  treaty  had 
been  made,  they  laid  down  their  arms  and  made  friendly 
overtures  also  to  Bacchides.  They  rose  up  again  when 
Nicanor  threatened  the  destruction  of  the  sanctuary,  and 
having  destroyed  him  and  his  army,  they  again  laid  down 
their  arms.  Four  centuries  of  dependence  on  difierent  foreign 
potentates  had  produced  the  conviction  that  it  mattered  little 
who  did  the  profane  business  of  the  State,  collected  the 
taxes  and  fought  the  battles,  so  long  as  the  sanctuary,  the 
Law,  and  the  religious  exercises  were  secured.  Therefore, 
after  the  fall  of  Nicanor,  they  did  not  support  either  Juda 
or  Jonathan,  although  they  did  not  oppose  them.  But 
when  Jonathan  and  Simon  became  chief  generals  of  An- 
tiochus and  commanded  Gentile  troops,  they  certainly 
could  no  longer  rely  upon  the  support  of  those  Hassidim 
and  scribes.  This  must  have  been  the  time  when  the  Phar- 
isees were  distinguished  as  a  party  or  sect.     In  all  matters 

(2)     Antiquities  xii.  iii.  4. 


OF    THE    REVOLUTIONARY    PERIOD.  121 

of  profane  government,  they  were  fatalists,  viz. :  they  main- 
tained that  if  God  wants  Israel  independent,  He  has  de- 
creed it  so,  and  it  must  come  to  pass  with  or  without  their 
exertion ;  but  they  would  not  deny  the  freedom  of  will  in 
matters  of  religion  and  morals.  This  was  their  standpoint 
at  that  time.  In  all  matters  of  religion  and  ethics,  of 
course,  they  were  rigidly  orthodox. 

The  Sadducees. 

Sadducees,  Hebrew  D'pnv  (3),  rulers,  governors  and  vic- 
tors, the  party  of  rulers  and  victors.  Josephus  gives  no 
religious  characteristic  of  the  Sadducees  at  that  time,  and 
it  appears  they  had  none  to  distinguish  them  as  a  sect 
The  Hellenists  were  extinguished.  The  Sadducees,  in  after 
times,  the  same  causes  producing  the  same  effects,  adopted 
their  doctrines  in  regard  to  future  reward  and  punishment, 
and  the  validity  of  the  traditions ;  but  at  the  time  of  Jona- 
than such  was  not  yet  the  case.  Their  origin  was  political. 
By  the  influence  of  Jonathan,  Simon  and  their  compatriots^ 
the  idea  of  national  independence  gained  ground  among  a 
class  of  Hebrews,  most  likely  the  young,  less  rigorous  and 
ritualistic  than  others,  and  from  that  class  the  warriors 
were  drawn  wlio  supported  Jonathan  and  Simon.  After 
every  successful  revolution  anywhere,  the  warriors  claimed 
the  executive  oihces,  the  right  and  power  to  govern,  and 
to  lay  the  foundation  to  a  new  aristocracy.  This  was 
also  the  case  in  Jonathan's  time.  His  warriors  made  the 
same  claims,  and  met  with  no  oiDposition,  as  the  Pharisees 
only  claimed  the  right  to  have  the  judiciary  and  the 
schools  under  their  control,  and  looked  upon  the  executive 
function  as  a  profane  business.  That  those  victors  who 
achieved  national  independence  and  held  the  executive 
offices  called  themselves  the  Tsaddikiin^  and  as  a  party, 
Tsaddukim,  was  quite  natural,  after  they  had  rendered 
that  great  service  to  the  nation;  In  their  estimation,  politi- 
cal independence  was  as  essential  as  religious  liberty,  and 

(3)  Tsaddukim  is  the  correct  reading,  by  comparison  of  the  He- 
brew and  Greek,  and  not  Tsedokim,  as  derived  from  the  family  name 
of  tlie  priests  of  tlie  house  of  Tsadok.  The  word  Tsaddik  may  have 
been  changed  into  Tsadduk,  to  make  it  consonant  with  Fmush, 
"  Pharisee,"  and  to  distinguish  it  from  the  common  application  of  the 
word  Tsaddik,  "the  righteous."  That  tlie  term  |T"li*  Tsaddik,  also 
signifies  rulers,  governors  aiad  victors,  implying  both  strength  and  jus- 
tice, and  also  wisdom,  is  well  established.  Gesenius,  in  pHi*,  3,  Al- 
bert Schu  ten's  rendition,  and  Fuerst,  in  pl^*,  where  he  compares  it 
with  the  Aram.  p~i7  "  to  be  firm,  strong,  hard,  faithful,  true,  tried." 


122  LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE 

the  former  was  necessary  for  the  security  of  the  latter. 
They  did  not  believe  in  the  decrees  of  fate  in  relation  to  pro- 
fane government.  They  held  that  it  must  be  established  upon 
the  independence  of  the  nation,  and  that  this  must  be  won 
by  the  warrior's  strong  arm.  To  them  the  scribe  was  not 
the  highest  authority ;  the  military  and  political  chief  was. 
While,  therefore,  the  Pharisees  honored  in  Jonatlian,  and 
afterward  in  Simon,  the  lawful  and  law-abiding  high  priest, 
the  son  of  Mattathia  and  brother  of  Juda,  the  Sadducees 
saw  in  those  illustrious  persons  the  highest  ideals  personi- 
fied, the  God-sent  redeemers  of  Israel.  This  was  the  party 
in  which  the  political  and  martial  ideas  predominated. 

4.     The  Essenes. 

EssENES,  supposed  to  be  identical  with  j-'dx  "  physicians," 
]^p^m  "  ascetics,"  or  also  men  of  distinguishing  morals  and 
manners,  and  Osiotis  Dn^DH  "  the  very  pious,"  all  of  which 
is  based  upon  conjecture,  was  the  name  of  the  third  party 
(4).  A  secret  order,  established  in  the  days  of  persecution, 
whose  members  called  themselves  the  strong  and  mighty 
men,  to  preserve  the  Law  and  the  traditions,  came  out  of 
the  revolutionary  time  as  a  body  of  some  importance.  Its 
members  were,  in  practice,  most  rigorous  Pharisees,  in  eat- 
ing their  food  in  Levitical  cleanness.  Up  to  the  time  of 
Herod,  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  public  affairs,  and  left 
them  to  fate,  recognizing  tlieir  object  of  existence  in  reli- 
gious practices  and  the  contemplative  life  only.  What  the 
Essenes  became  afterward  is  reported  in  Philo  and  Josephus 
(Antiq.  xviii.  i.  5  and  Wars  ii.  viii.).  Besides  their  com- 
munism and  celibacy,  their  main  characteristics,  appear  to 
he  given  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  They  became  interpreters 
of  dreams,  predicted  future  events  by  researches  made  in 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  claimed  to  be  in  communication  with 
the  angels,  exactly  like  Daniel ;  so  that  it  appears  that  this 
secret  order  was  started  by  the  person  or  persons  who, 
about  170  B.  c,  brought  out,  in  its  present  form,  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  and  was  based  on  principles  contained  therein. 

5.    The  Psalms  of  this  Period. 

In  times  of  war,  the  pen  is  at  rest ;  the  poet  only  draws 
inspiration  from  the  exciting  events.     Therefore,  in  Pales- 

(4)  The  Aramaic  NJDn  "  strength,  power,"  as  used  in  Daniel  ii. 
37  and  iv.  27,  with  the  signification  of  hiding  and  storing  away, 
which  it  has  in  the  Arabic,  and  in  tlie  Hebrew  ilDn,  fully  accounts 
for  the  word  Essenes.  Later  in  history,  they  received  diflerent 
names,  perhaps  on  account  of  various  sects  among  them. 


OF   THE    REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD.  123 

tirie,  during  the  excitement  of  the  revolutionary  war,  no 
prose  writers  flourished,  and  the  poet's  lyre  only  re-echoes 
the  strains  of  that  age.  It  was  an  era  of  deep  and  rousing 
religious  excitement.  Priests  became  warriors,  prophets 
rose,  and  divine  bards  sang  new  songs  to  the  glory  of  God, 
the  sufferings  and  victories  of  Israel.  The  patriotic  reli- 
gious inspiration  which,  at  home,  transformed  peaceable 
peasants  into  heroes,  and  pious  Levites  into  sublime  poets, 
aroused  abroad  also,  especially  among  the  Grecian  Hebrews, 
the  spirit  of  prophesy  and  religious  enthusiasm  which  adopted 
the  Pagan  style  of  the  Sibylline  form.  In  Palestine,  how- 
•ever,  some  Psalms  onl}^  bear  characteristics  of  the  Macca- 
bean  age.  Thus,  Psalm  Ixxi.,  as  stated  before,  appears  to 
"belong  to  Mattathia.  Psalm  cxliv.  appears  to  be  the  battle 
song  of  the  Maccabees.  Psalms  xlvi.,  xlvii.,  xlviii.,  Ixvi. 
and  Ixvii.  are  evidently  monuments  of  Maccabean  victories  ; 
and  Psalm  cvi.  can  not  well  be  placed  in  any  other  time. 
The  Hallel  Psalms,  cxiii.  to  cxviii.,  the  Hallelujah  Psalms, 
cxlvi.  to  cL,  and,  perhaps  also,  the  anonymous  Psalms,  xcv. 
to  xcix.,  are  certainly  fi-om  this  period  of  lofty  inspiration. 
There  may  be  other  Maccabean  Psalms  in  our  collection, 
but  there  are  none  of  a  later  date.  The  Psalm  collection 
in  the  Bible  must  have  been  made  shortly  after  this  period. 

6.     Close  of  the  Hagiographic  Caxon. 

The  third  part  of  the  Bible  Canon  is  called  D^2inD  "  Hag- 
iography,"  and  consists  of  the  Books  of  Ruth,  Psalms,  Job, 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Solomon,  Lamentations, 
Daniel,  Esther,  Ezra  (and  Nehemiah)  and  Chronicles  {Baha 
Bathra,  14  h).  This  order  of  the  books  was  changed  after- 
ward. These  books  were  collected,  authenticated,  tran- 
scribed in  the  sacred  characters,  and  added  to  the  Biblical 
Canon  in  the  time  of  Simon.  The  whole  Canon,  as  it  is  now 
before  us  in  its  three  divisions,  was  known  to  the  grand- 
son of  Joshua  b.  Sirach  and  had  been  translated  into  Greek 
in  his  time,  as  he  repeatedly  states  in  his  introduction  to 
the  Greek  translation  of  his  grandfather's  book.  There  is 
no  book  and  no  portion  of  one  in  the  Canon  which  did  not 
exist  in  the  time  of  Simon,  although  phrases  ma}'  have  been 
changed  afterward  by  transcribers,  expounders  or  trans- 
lators (5). 


(5)     This  work  may  have  been  accomplished  in  the  beginning  of 
the  next  period,  between  140  to  134  b.  c,  but  certainly  no  later. 


124  literature  and  culture 

7.     The   Hebrews    in   Parthia  and   their   Connection" 

WITH  Palestine. 

The  Parthians,  supposed  to  be  Scythians,  of  the  Inclo-Ger- 
manic  family,  inhabited  a  territory  south-east  of  the  Caspian 
Sea,  from  whicli  they  were  separated  by  the  narrow  strip  of 
country  called  H3a-cania.  Their  country  was  mountainous, 
and  the  people  were  distinguished  for  bravery,  predatory  expe- 
ditions, and  voluptuous  pleasures,  without  possessing  agricul- 
tural or  other  arts  of  peace  and  civilization.  When  the  Medo- 
Persian  Empire  had  been  overthrown  by  Alexander  the 
Great,  and  the  seat  of  government  removed  from  Persia, 
under  Seleucus  Nicator,  to  the  distant  Antioch,  the  Parthians 
became  bold  and  troublesome  to  their  neighbors.  In  25& 
B.  c,  Arsaces  I.  roused  the  Parthians  to  rebellion  against 
this  Syrian  ruler,  and  achieved  the  independence  of  Parthia 
and  Hyrcania.  Between  this  and  150  b.  c,  the  Parthians, 
governed  by  the  Arsaces  dynasty,  subjected  to  their  sway 
nearly  all  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire,  as  far  east  as  to  the 
borders  of  India  and  Chinese  Tartary,  and  as  far  west  as  the 
Euphrates,  so  that  the  same  country  was  called  either  Par- 
thia or  Persia.  In  the  time  of  Simon,  Arsaces  VI.  or  Mith- 
ridates  I.  was  king  of  Parthia.  He  added  Bactria  and  a 
part  of  India  to  Parthia,  and  in  138  b.  c,  captured  Demetrius- 
II.,  king  of  Syria.  The  largest  number  of  the  Hebrews, 
Avho  had  remained  in  the  East,  were  now  Parthians ;  a  few 
of  them  had  gone  to  China  and  India,  and  some  to  Ara- 
bia. The  Parthian  Hebrews,  usually  called  Babylonian  or 
Persian,  were  descendants  of  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  (6).  As 
the  history  of  that  empire  up  to  200  a.  c.  was  entirely  neg- 
lected by  Eastern  chronographers  (7),  so,  also,  was  the  his- 
tory of  the  Hebrews  in  the  East.  It  is  only  by.  the  fects  of 
a  later  period  and  the  notices  in  the  Talmud,  "that  we  know 
anything  at  all  about  them.  According  to  these  meager  no- 
tices, it  appears  that  the  Hebrews  there  always  formed  a  State 
within  the  State,  governed  by  their  own  laws  and  customs, 
and  by  a  prince  of  the  House  of  David,  as  they,  in  after- 
times,  maintained  in  their  traditions,  whose  title  was  "  Head 
of  the  Captivity"  (xm!?J  trn).  An  imperfect  list  of  those 
princes,  from  the  last  king  of  Juda,  has  been  preserved  (8). 
Schools  of  law  and  theology  flourished  among  them,  it  is 
claimed,  even  superior  to  those  of  Palestine.     Although  de- 

■  (6)     Berachoth,  16  b,  imN  Np  pyOK'D  IX  trriN  Ni5  pINI^D  -N  \yVT  i6l. 

(7)  Sir  John  Malcolm's  History  of  Persia,  end  of  IV.  Chapter. 

(8)  Seder  Olam  Zutlu ;  see  also  Dr.  Julius  Fuerst's  Kultur  und  Lit- 
eraturgeschichte  der  Juden  in  Aden,  Chapter  I. 


OF   THE    REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD..  125 

pendent  on  Jerusalem  in  the  proclamation  of  the  new  moon 
and  the  consequent  establishment  of  the  festivals,  and  look- 
ing toward  that  city  and  temple  as  the  religious  and  holy 
center  of  Israel,  an  independent  method  of  expounding  the 
Law  developed  among  them,  which  influenced  the  doctors 
of  Palestine  no  less  than  they  influenced  the  Babjdonians. 
The  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  and  the  similarity  of  the  po- 
litical situation  before  Simon,  held  together  the  Hebrews  of 
the  East  and  of  Palestine,  who  alwaA's  considered  them- 
selves one  people.  Doctors  from  the  East  settled  fre- 
quently in  Palestine,  and  taught  in  its  academies,  as  doc- 
tors of  Palestine  did  in  the  East.  Pious  men  in  the  East, 
however,  were  not  buried  there ;  their  corpses  were  sent  to 
Palestine  for  interment.  Nor  could  one  be  an  authorized 
judge  or  teacher  there  unless  ordained  by  the  heads  of  the 
Sanhedrin  in  Palestine.  The  Hebrews  of  the  East  were 
even  more  purely  Jewish  than  those  of  Judea,  because  less 
exposed  to  persecutions,  wars  and  Grecian  influence.  They 
did  not  temporize.  During  the  revolutionary  war,  and 
shortly  after,  large  numbers  of  them  must  have  emigrated 
into  Palestine,  especially  east  of  the  Jordan  and  Galilee, 
where,  in  the  next  periods,  we  find  large  numbers  of  He- 
brews, which  was  not  the  case  in  the  time  of  Juda  Macca- 
bee.  With  these  immigrations,  the  Aramaic  language  was 
carried  into  Palestine,  although  the  Syriac  was  certainly 
used  before  in  Galilee,  and  the  difference  between  the  Syriac 
and  West  Aramaic  is  very  little. 

8.    The  Literature  of  the  Parthian  Hebrews. 

The  literature  of  the  Parthian  Hebrews  appears  to  have 
been  extensive,  although  mere  fragments  thereof  have  been 
preserved  in  the  Greek,  Aramaic  and  Syriac.  These  frag- 
ments are  the  Books  of  Tobit,  Baruch,  Judith,  Susanna  and 
other  fragments  from  an  older  Book  of  Daniel,  all  of  which 
were  originally  Aramaic  and  were  written  in  the  East  before 
or  during  this  period. 

1.  Susanna  is  one  of  the  Daniel  fragments  which  were 
not  accepted  in  the  Canon  (9).  It  consists  of  sixty-four 
verses  (Greek)  and  reports  a  story  from  the  youth  of  Dan- 
iel. Susanna  is  the  wife  of  a  celebrated  elder  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  Babylonia,  in  the  time  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Many  distinguished  persons,  and  among  them,  two  elders 


(9)  Other  fragments  of  this  kind  are  the  Praj'er  of  Asariah,  Psalm 
of  the  Three  Men  in  the  Fiery  Furnace,  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  which 
are  without  originality.  The  latter  is  imitated  in  the  Talmud  Be- 
rachoth  6  a. 


126  LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE 

and  judges,  meet  in  Joakim's  house,  and  these  hitter  fall  in 
love  with  his  beautiful  wife,  attempt  to  debauch  her.  and 
fciiling  therein,  accuse  her  of  adultery,  in  consequence  of 
which  she  is  condemned  to  death.  Led  to  the  scaffold,  God 
raises  the  holy  spirit  of  Daniel ;  he  cries  out  against  the  in- 
justice to  be '  committed ;  Susanna  and  the  elders  are  led 
back  to  the  seat  of  judgment;  Daniel  conducts  a  second 
trial,  proves  the  innocence  of  Susanna  and  the  guilt  of  the 
elders.  The  latter  are  put  to  death,  and  Daniel's  fame  is 
great  in  the  land.  The  whole  narrative  is  Baljylonian.  The 
criminal  procedure  described  therein  is  similar  to  the  Pal- 
estinian, and  yet  differing  from  it  sufficiently  to  point  dis- 
tinctly to  a  time  and  place  distant  from  Jerusalem  and 
prior  "to  the  criminal  law  established  in  the  next  period  of 
this  history.  Its  language  was  undoubtedly  Aramaic,  the 
time  of  its  origin  pre-Maccabean  (10). 

2.  The  Book  of  Tobi,  Tobit  or  Tobias,  consists  of  six- 
teen chapters  (Greek)  and  reports  the  story  of  Tobi  and  his 
son  Tobiah,  residents  of  Nineveh,  in  the  time  of  Salmena- 
sar,  Sanherib  and  Esarhaddon,  kings  of  Assyria.  Several 
versions  and  translations  of  this  book  exist  (11).  Tobit  is 
a  pious  Hebrew  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali,  led  into  captivity 
by  Salmenasar.  In  Nineveh,  he  became  the  king's  pur- 
veyor, and  amassed  wealth,  part  of  which  he  deposited  with 
his  friend  Gabael,  who  resided  in  a  city  afterward  called 
Rages  (built  by  Seleucus  Nicator).  In  his  captivity,  Tobit 
is  as  pious  and  charitable  as  he  was  in  his  own  country^ 
and  adds  to  his  works  of  benevolence  particular  care  for 
burying  the  dead,  which  was  prohibited  among  the  follow- 
ers of  Zoroaster  (12).  In  consequence  of  this  he  is  perse- 
cuted by  the  king,  leaves  the  capital  of  Assyria,  returns  after 
the  death  of  Sanherib,  continues  his  w^orks  of  charity,  be- 
comes blind  and  poor,  is  maltreated  by  his  wife,  who  supports 
him  by  her  labor,  and,  like  Job,  he  wishes  to  die.  He  re- 
members the  treasures  he  had  deposited  Avith  his  friend, 
and  asks  his  son,  Tobiah,  to  go  to  the  distant  city  and  ob- 
tain them  of  his  friend  Gabael.      The   son   seeks  a  trust- 


(10)  The  rabbis  had  no  better  opinion  of  the  Babylonian  elders 
than  the  author  of  Susanna  had.     {Sanhedrin,  93  a). 

(11)  See  the  Book  of  Tobit,  etc.,  by  Ad.  Neubauer,  Oxford,  1877. 

(12)  See  Joliann  Friederich  Kleuker's  Zend-Avesta;  the  passages 
noticed  in  his  Verzeichniss  der  Sncken,  etc.,  under  the  term  Tod  This 
circumstance  proves  that  the  Book  of  Tobit  was  written  after  the 
reign  of  Darius  and  Cyrus.  None  of  tliese  books  were  written  near 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  as  they  are  not  noticed  by  the  Tena'im,  and 
several  passages  from  them  occur  in  the  New  Testament,  also  in. 
Paul's  Epistles. 


OF   THE    REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD.  127 

worthy  companion  and  finds  the  angel  Raphael,  who,  in  the 
form  of  a  young  man  called  Asaria,  goes  with  him.  On  the 
way,  they  "bathe  in  the  Tigris  River;  a  huge  fish  (like  that 
of  Jonah),  threatens  to  swalloAv  Tobiah.  Encouraged _  by 
the  angel,  he  catches  and  kills  the  fish,  and  takes  its  liver 
and  gall.  Reaching  Ecbatana,  they  go  to  the  house  of 
Raguel,  a  friend  of  Tobit,  where  they  are  hospitably  enter- 
tained. He  has  an  only  daughter,  wliose  name  is  Sarah, 
who  had  been  married  seven  times,  but  her  husbands  were 
killed  in  the  bridal  chamber  by  the  demon  Asmodi.  To- 
biah desires  to  marry  Sarah ;  her  father  informs  him  of  the 
fate  of  her  seven  husbands,  but  Tobiah  marries  her  neverthe- 
less. By  advice  of  the  angel,  he  burns  the  liver  of  the  fish 
in  the  bridal  chamber,  and  prays  with  his  wife.  This  l)an- 
ishes  Asipodi  far  away  into  Upper  Egypt,  and  both  Tobiah 
and  Sarah  are  saved.  The  angel  goes  to  Rages,  receives  the 
treasures,  and  then  they  return  to  Tobit  with  great  wealth. 
When  the  blind  man  approached  his  son  to  embrace  him, 
he  anointed  his  father's  eyes  with  the  gall  of  the  fish,  and 
Tobit  instantly  recovered  his  sight.  He  was  again  happy 
and  rich,  gave  praise  to  God,  and  the  angel  returned  to 
heaven.  The  Avhole  story,  in  its  moral  lesson,  is  an  imita- 
tion of  Job,  and  like  it,  is  based  on  a  popular  legend.  The 
numerous  quotations  from  the  Bible  and  frequent  imita- 
tions of  Bible  passages,  prove  that  the  book  was  written 
long  after  P]zra,  after  Job  and  Jonah,  perhaps  in  the  Grecian 
period.  The  angel  in  the  form  of  man,  the  demon  Asmodi, 
known  only  in  the  Babylonian  Talmud  (13),  the  golden 
rule  advanced  by  Tobit  (iV.  15)  and  brought  to  Palestine  by 
Hillel,  the  Babylonian,  and  the  whole  tone  of  the  book,  like 
the  miraculous'properties  of  the  liver  and  gall  of  the  fish, 
point  to  the  East  at  a  considerable  distance  from  Palestine. 
It  is  the  didactic  production  of  a  Babylonian  sage  in  imita- 
tion of  Job,  in  vindication  of  Providence,  and  in  laudation  of 
humanitarian  piety.  It  bears  distinctly  the  eastern  colophon,, 
and  points  to  the  origin  of  the  Babylonian  Hagadah. 

3.  The  Book  of  Judith  is  a  book  of  sixteen  chapters. 
It  was  originally  Aramaic.  A  general  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
whose  name  was  Holofernes,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  that 
king's  reign,  overran  a  part  of  Palestine  and  besieged  Bethuel, 
a  town  of  the  tribe  of  Simeon  (Joshua  xix.  4;  I.  Chron- 
icles iv.  30).  The  inhabitants  of  Bethuel  were  in  great  dis- 
tress. A  heroic  and  very  ascetic  widow,  Judith,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Meraris,  the  scion  of  sixteen  sires,  a  woman  of  great 

(13)     GuiTiN  65;  see  S.  L.  Rapaport's  Ereeh  MVlin,  Art.  Ashmodai^ 
the  demon  of  sensual  love,  who  also  dethroned  King  Solomon. 


128  LITERATURE   AND   CULTURE 

beauty  and  piety,  resolves  to  risk  her  life  in  order  to  save 
her  city  and  its  inhabitants.  She  goes  to  the  camp  of  Hol- 
ofernes,  wins  his  affections,  is  alone  with  him  in  his  tent, 
he  falls  asleep,  and  she  slays  him  with  his  own  sword,  as 
Jael  did  Sisera.  She  escapes  from  the  camp,  the  defenders 
of  the  city  sally  forth,  rout  the  besieging  army  and  drive  it 
hence.  The  honors  showered  upon  Judith,  her  hymn  of 
praise,  and  the  story  of  her  old  age,  close  the  book.  The 
names  and  dates  in  this  book  are  unhistorical,  its  moral 
principle,  eulogizing  an  assassin,  is  low  and  points  to  a  time 
of  hostility  and  fanaticism.  The  patriotic  idea  predomi- 
nates in  the  whole  book  to  such  an  extent  and  with  so  much 
fanaticism  and  asceticism,  that  the  time  of  its  origin  can 
not  be  doubtful.  It  is  certainly  an  allegory  based  on  some 
ancient  tradition,  written  in  the  East  after  the  flight  and 
death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  sent  to  the  Hebrews  of  Pales- 
tine to  encourage  and  to  rouse  them  to  the  heroic  struggle. 
This  is  also  partly  the  idea  of  De  Wette  and  Grotius.  The 
apostatizing  edict  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  was  directed 
against  all  the  Hebrews  of  the  Syrian  Empire,  and  caution 
was  necessary  in  writing  a  patriotic  book.  Therefore,  this 
form  was  chosen.  This  guides  us  also  in  ascertaining  the 
time  when  the  Book  of  Baruch  was  written. 

4,  The  Book  of  Baruch  consists  of  five  chapters  and 
an  appendix  of  one  chapter.  The  book  opens  with  an  in- 
troduction of  nine  verses,  in  which  Baruch  b.  Neriah,  the 
scribe  of  the  Prophet  Jeremiah,  is  mentioned  as  the  author 
of  those  speeches  which  were  read  in  Babel  before  the  cap- 
tives and  King  Jechonia,  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  captivity, 
when  money  was  collected  and,  together  with  some  of  the 
temple  vessels,  sent  to  Jerusalem,  accompanied  by  an  epis- 
tle admonishing  those  who  remained  in  Jerusalem  to  pray 
for  King  Nebuchadnezzar,  to  adhere  steadfastly  to  the  Law, 
and  be  mindful  of  the  fact  that  God  punished  Israel  on  ac- 
count of  his  disobedience ;  and  that  He  will  again  be  gra- 
cious to  him  as  he  returns  to  the  Law  and  its  precepts. 
True  wisdom  is  in  the  revealed  Law,  and  the  hope  of  Jeru- 
salem is  in  submission  to  its  commandments.  The  sixth 
chapter  is  an  epistle  of  Jeremiah  in  reply  to  the  former,  and 
a  polemic  against  idolatry  and  its  practices.  The  book  was 
originally  Aramaic.  The  seventh  generation  after  Jeremiah 
(Baruch  vi.  3)  mentioned  as  the  time  of  Israel's  redemp- 
tion, is  given  in  Seder  Olam  Sutta  as  the  time  of  Nicanor ; 
so  that  it  can  hardly  be  doubtful  that  the  death  of  Nicanor 
was  the  immediate  incentive  for  writing  this  book,  as  a  con- 
gratulation and  encouragement  to  those  in  Palestine  who 
fought  against  idolatry  and  oppression.     It  contains  numer- 


OF    THE    EEVOLUTIONARY    PERIOD.  129 

ous  quotations  from  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Job  and  late  Psalms. 
As  in  Judith,  the  same  unlnstorical  highpriest,  Joiakim,  is 
mentioned,  and,  like  the  former,  it  is  full  of  ascetic  hints. 
Nebuchadnezzar  and  all  the  dates  are  equally  unhistorical  in 
both  books  ;  so  that  their  simultaneous  origin  can  hardly  be 
doubted.  Judith  appears  to  favor  the  complete  independ- 
ence of  Palestine,  and  Barueh,  civil  and  religious  liberty 
under  the  kings  of  Syria,  as  the  two  parties  at  home  pro- 
posed. The  Barueh  story  ap})ears  to  be  true  ;  the  letters 
and  prayers,  however,  were  written  in  the  East  after  the 
death  of  Nicanor. 

9.     The  Hebrews  in  Egypt. 

The  Hebrew  population  of  Egypt  had  largely  increased  in 
the  Grecian  period,  and  was  cc«isiderably  augmented  in  the 
revolutionary  time.  Besides,  numerous  Grecian  Hebrews, 
who  must  have  sought  refuge  in  Egy})t,  the  men  of  learning 
and  letters,  and  many  other  non-combatants,  like  Onias  and 
Aristobul,  went  to  Egypt,  and  especially  to  Alexandria,  to 
the  Island  of  Cyprus  and  to  Gyrene,  where  some  of  them 
had  lived  since  the  time  of  the  first  Ptolemy  (Joseph,  con- 
tra Apion  ii.  4),  and  afterward  became  very  wealthy  and 
prominent  (Ant.  xiv.  7,  2).  With  the  Macedonians  and 
Greeks,  they  belonged,  in  all  those  countries,  to  the  favored 
class  of  citizens  in  commerce,  industry  anct  politics,  while 
the  native  Eg3'ptians  Avere  treated  as  a  conquered  race,  of 
inferior  intelligence.  The  princi})al  homes  of  the  Hebrews 
in  Egypt  were  in  Alexandria,  Memphis,  Cairo  and  the  com- 
mercial cities  on  the  Red  Sea.  In  Alexandria  they  were 
renowned  artisans,  merchants  and  ship-owners.  Alexan- 
dria having  become  the  metropolis  of  the  world's  commerce, 
the  Hebrews,  undoubtedly,  from  that  starting-point,  pene- 
trated into  Europe,  and  were  engaged  in  the  trade  at  the 
various  ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  Adriatip,  North  and 
Baltic  Seas  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  although  they  were 
known  there  only  as  Greeks  or  Phoenicians.  In  Egypt  and 
the  other  countries,  they  lived  according  to  their  own  laws 
and  were  governed  by  one  elected  head,  with  the  title  Eth- 
narch  or  Alabarch,  who  resided  in  Alexandria  and  presided 
over  the  Alexandrian  Sanhedrin  of  seventy  or  seventy-one. 
This  officer  and  this  body  governed  the  Egyptian  Hebrews 
in  their  religious  and  social  affairs.  With  the  excejDtion  of 
a  short  period  under  the  reign  of  Philopator,  they  always 
lived  in  peace,  in  excellent  harmony  with  the  Macedonians 
and  Greeks,  and  were,  like  them,  hated  by  the  Egyptians. 
Therefore,  and  especially  when,  during  the  revolution,  many 


130  LITERATURE   AND    CULTURE 

of  the  Grccizing  Hebrews  immigrated  into  Egypt,  they 
adopted  the  Greek  kmguage,  not  only  in  their  faniihes,  but 
also  in  the  synagogues,  read  the  Bible  in  the  Greek  transla- 
tion, and  their  doctors  Avere  largely  influenced  by  the  philos- 
ophy and  poetry  of  Greece  and  the  learning  of  Alexandria. 
The  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  still  united  them  with  the 
mother  country  and  language ;  but  this  was  also  disturbed 
by  the  Onias  Temple. 

10.     The  Onias  Temple. 

In  the  year  1G3  b.  c,  Onias,  son  of  Onias  III.,  the  last 
legitimate  highpriest,  came  to  Alexandria,  and  in  a  short 
time,  he  and  another  Hebrew,  Dositheus,  were  appointed 
chief  commanders  of  the  royal  army.  The  Hebrews  had 
already  distinguished  themselves  under  Philopator,  in  an 
insurrection  of  the  native  Egyptians  against  that  king. 
With  a  loss  on  the  part  of  the  Hebrews  of  40,000  or,  as  some 
report,  of  60,000  men,  they  put  down  the  rebellion.  In  162 
B.  c,  they  rendered  the  same  service  to  Philometor,  and  this 
time  more  by  prudence  than  valor.  This,  perhaps,  was  the 
cause  of  the  appointment  of  Onias  and  Dositheus  to  the 
highest  military  position,  although  Philometor  and  his 
mother  were  special  friends  of  the  Hebrews  and  their  reli- 
gion. Again  in  156  b.  c,  the  Alexandrians  rose  against 
Philometor,  and  again  Onias  pacified  them.  Onias,  consid- 
ering himself  the  legitimate  highpriest,  now  made  use  of 
the  favor  of  the  king  and  queen  to  claim,  in  Egypt,  the 
rights  of  which  he  was  deprived  in  Jerusalem.  He  obtained 
the  privilege  from  the  king  of  rebuilding  an  ancient  temple  in 
the  district  of  Heliopolis,  north-east  of  Memphis,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  anciently  a  Hebrew  temple  (Isaiah  xix. 
18  to  21).  He  intended  that  this  renowned  temple  should 
have  the  same  culte  as  that  of  Jerusalem,  and  Onias  to  be 
its  highpriest.  The  temple  was  built  (150  b.  c),  an  altar 
erected  Ijefore  it,  all  according  to  the  Laws  of  Moses  ;  priests 
were  appointed  from  among  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and  the 
entire  culte  of  Jerusalem  was  imitated.  Some  of  the  Greco- 
Hebrews,  especially  of  Alexandria,  continued  their  pilgrim- 
ages to  Jerusalem,  but  the  masses  of  the  people  all  over  tbe 
country  sacrificed  in  the  Onias  temple  at  Heliopolis,  and  so, 
gradually,  most  of  the  Egyptian  Hebrews  were  Grecized. 

11.     The  Hebrews  Protect  Cleopatra. 

Once  more  Onias  and  Dositheus  appeared  on  the  stnge 
of  Egyptian  history.     It  was  in  145  b.  c,  when  Philometor 


OF   THE    RE  VOLUTION  AEY   PERIOD.  131  ■ 

was  dead,  and  Cleopatra,  in  behalf  of  her  only  son,  had  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government.  A  party  of  Egyptians, 
however,  declared  in  favor  of  Physcon,  the  brother  of  Philo- 
metor  and  king  of  Cyrene,  and  sent  embassadors  to  him. 
Cleopatra  prej)ared  for  self-defense,  and  her  two  chief  cap- 
tains, Onias  and  Dositheus,  stood  by  her  with  an  arn:iy  of 
Hebrews.  The  Roman  embassador,  Thermus,  however,  set- 
tled the  difficulties  and  prevented  a  civil  war.  Cleopatra  mar- 
ried Physcon,  who  was  to  govern  Egypt  till  the  young  prince 
became  of  age.  But  Physcon,  on  the  wedding  day,  slew  his 
nephew  in  the  arms  of  his  mother  and  assumed  the  sole 
power  over  Egypt  and  Cyrene.  So  Egypt  was  placed  under 
the  iron  rule  of  one  of  the  most  brutal  and  inexorable  des- 
pots, who,  with  the  exception  of  three  years  of  banishment 
(130  to  127  B.  c),  maintained  himself  on  the  throne  of 
Egypt  to  his  death  in  117  b.  c.  This  murderous  and  incest- 
uous glutton  called  himself  Euergetes  II.,  but  his  name 
was  Physcon. 

12.     Aristobul  and  the  Literary  Activity  in  Egypt. 

The  Asmonean  revolution  and  the  subsequent  victory  of 
the  Palestinean  orthodoxy  drove,  with  the  Grecizing  He- 
brews, also  a  number  of  jDhilosophers  and  writers  to  foreign 
countries,  and  especially  to  Egypt;  so  that  from  and  after 
this  period,  Hebrew  philosophy  had  its  main  seat  in  Alex- 
andria. Among  those  who  came  to  Alexandria  was  Aristo- 
bul, of  Paneas,  in  Upper  Galilee,  a  man  of  priestly  extrac- 
tion, who  became  tutor  of  the  king  and  chief  of  the  He- 
brews of  Alexandria.  He  was  still  alive  in  the  year  124 
b.  c.  (II.  Maccabees  i.  10) ;  yet  his  main  activity  belongs  to 
this  period.  The  Alexandrian  Jewish  philosophy  begins 
with  him.  He  was  as  eminent  a  Greek  writer  as  he  was  a 
profound  reasoner  and  enthusiastic  believer  in  Judaism. 
All  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  ancient  Grecian  poets  and 
philosophers  appeared  to  him  taken  from  the  shrine  of  the 
Hebrews.  Not  only  Pythagoras,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  but 
also  Orpheus,  Aratos,  Linos,  Homer  and  Hesiod,  according- 
to  Aristobul,  adopted  and  advanced  Hebrew  precepts  and 
admired  the  mighty  sires  of  this  nation's  superior  mind. 
The  main  portions  of  the  Pentateuch,  he  maintained,  had 
been  known  to  the  Greeks  long  before  the  book  was  trans- 
lated, under  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  In  his  time,  as  the 
translator  of  Ben  Sirach's  book  states  in  his  introduction, 
the  whole  Hebrew  Bible  had  been  translated  into  Greek, 
and  the  activity  of  Greco-Hebrew  scribes  must  have  been 
very  extensive,  although,  besides  the  Bible  and  some  Apocry- 


132  LITERATURE    AND   CULTURE 

pha,  only  fragments  of  that  period  are  extant,  and  quota- 
tions by  later  authors.  The  works  of  Aristobul  have  also 
been  lost  (14) ;  and  of  his  principal  work,  "  Commentaries 
on  the  Pentateuch,"  dedicated  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  Euse- 
bius  (15).  and  others,  fragments  only  have  been  saved.  In 
them  there  are  quotations  from  Greek  poets,  supposed  to 
have  been  interpolated  by  Aristobul  to  prove  his  hypothesis 
concerning  the  ancient  Greek  writers  and  their  knowledge 
and  appreciation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  It  appears  be- 
yond doubt,  from  those  fragments,  that  Aristobul  was  the 
first  who  wrote  a  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch.  If  not 
the  first  author,  he  certainly  was  the  first  writer  of  the  philo- 
sophical DerasTia.  He  began  his  work  in  Palestine  with 
the  book  called  •'  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  which  contains 
the  general  introduction  to  the  "  Commentar}',"  and  then  a 
commentary  or  Derashah  on  the  Exode,  and  the  miracles 
connected  with  it.  In  Egypt,  perhaps,  he  commenced  with 
a  Grecian  translation  of  this  book,  which  he  continued  with 
a  commentary  on  the  laws. 

13.     The  Precepts  of  Aristobul. 

The  Book  of  Wisdom  and  the  fragments  of  Aristobul's 
Commentaries,  contain  the  following  doctrines  : 

God  Himself  is  inscrutable  to  human  reason ;  He  has 
partially  manifested  Himself  in  the  creation,  and  in  revela- 
tion to  men  who  can  and  do  rise  above  the  sensual  to  the 
source  of  all  intellectual  and  physical  being  (16). 

God  is  perfect  in  wisdom,  goodness,  power  and  holiness ; 
all  anthropomorphisms  and  anthropopathisms  in  Scrip- 
tures are  allegorical.  So  the  hand  of  God  signifies  his 
power,  the  word  and  speech  of  God  signifies  creative  deeds 
in  nature  or  the  human  mind,  etc. ;  wisdom  or  Shekinah  is 
the  manifestation  of  God's  inspiration  at  a  certain  place  or 
to  a  certain  person  or  persons. 


(14)  De  Rossa,  in  his  Meor  Etiayim,  and  others,  report  that  a  man- 
uscript of  Aristobul  was  extant  and  kept  hi  a  convent  at  Mantua, 
but  it  has  not  yet  been  found. 

(15)  Frafparolio  Evangelica  (divided  into  fifteen  books)  vii.  14 ; 
viii.  10;  Jx.  6;  xiii.  12. 

(16)  The  formula  which  in  aftertimes  gave  rise  to  the  duahsm  of 
(nV'lJJ'"!  ^n*;;')  father  and  son,  God  and  Demiurgos,  or  God  and  Logos, 
belonged  to  Aristobul,  who  attempted  to  make  Heathens  understand 
the  God  of  Israel.  The  precept  itself  was  certainly  commonly  known 
and  understood  among  the  Hebrews  as  the  Jt'hovah  E'rihim  theology. 
It  is  found  again  in  the  Talmud  lOipjD  ^h^V^  ^Nl  D^iy  h^  lOlpD  Nin, 
"  He  is  the  world's  place,  but  the  world  is  not  His  place.  He  is  the 
immanent  in  nature,  but  not  absorbed  therein  ;  and  in  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  i.  19,  20 ;  Acts  xvii.  22,  e.  s. 


OF   THE    REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD.  133J 

The  world  is  governed  by  God's  eternal  wisdom,  good- 
ness and  providence  ;  no  evil  comes  from  Him  ;  every  mari 
receives  his  due  on  this  earth  or  in  eternal  life. 

Man's  duty  on  earth  is  to  advance  steadily  in  wisdom 
and  goodness,  to  come  so  much  nearer  the  Deity  by  love 
and  cogitation,  which  is  the  supreme  good  here  and  here- 
after. 

The  ancient  Grecian  savans  also  have  taught  this  creed, 
in  philosophical  formulas  or  myths,  all  of  which,  however, 
is  contained  in  Hebrew  Scriptures,  expressly  or  allegorically. 

Kings,  no  less  than  those  over  whom  they  rule,  are  sub- 
ject to  God's  laws  and  responsible  to  Plim  for  their  doings 
and  omissions. 

With  the  translation  of  the  entire  Scriptures  and  the 
commentaries  of  Aristobul  into  the  Greek  language  and  con- 
ceptions, the  combat  of  Grecism  and  Judaism  was  carried 
among  the  most  intelligent  Heathens,  and  became  an  active 
principle  of  history,  which  is  still  at  work  in  our  days. 

14.     Other  Writers  of  the  Greco-Hebrews. 

Commentaries  on  the  Pentateuch  after  Aristobul  be- 
came the  fashion  among  the  Greco-Hebrew  writers.  •  Such 
books,  of  which  fragments  have  been  preserved  by  Alexan- 
der Polyhistor,  Eusebius  and  others  (17),  are  Eupolemos, 
one  of  Juda's  embassadors  to  Rome  (Euseb.  Praep.  Evang. 
ix.),  who  wrote  historical  commentaries  in  two  books;  Ar- 
TAPANUs  (See  p.  79),  who  appears  to  have  been  a  Heathen 
of  an  older  date ;  Demetrius,  Aristeas,  and  Cleodemos, 
whose  age  and  faith  is  not  ascertained.  The  fragments  of 
their  writings  show  that,  instigated  by  the  success  of  Aris- 
tobul, many  Greco-Hebrews  and  Heathens  wrote  commen- 
taries on  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  popularized  them 
among  the  Greeks.  The  history  of  the  Hebrews  from  176 
to  161  B.  c,  an  abstract  of  which  is  in  II.  Maccabees,  was 
written  by  Yason  of  Gyrene.  He  wrote  the  history  of 
Mattathia  and  Juda  Maccabee  from  verbal  reports  as  they 
had  reached  him,  and  was  inclined  to  the  marvellous  and 
supernatural.  His  book  has  been  lost.  Melon  wrote  a 
book  against  the  Hebrews,  of  which  a  small  and  insignificant 
fragment  is  extant  (18).  The  Greco-Hebrew  poets  also  arose 

(17)  See  Dr.  L.  Herzfeld's  Geschichte  des  Volkes  Jiarael,  II.  Band,  p. 
458  e.  s.,and  Excurs.  30.  Alexander  Cornelius  Polyhistor  wrote 
about  80  to  90  B.  c,  and  was  the  main  compiler  of  Ureco-Hebrew 
fragments,  from  whom  the  Christian  historians  chiefly  copied. 

(18)  See  Polyhistor,  chapters  xvii.,  xviii.,  xix.,  xxxvi.,  xxxvii ;  C. 
'M.u.elier's  Frag menta  BiMoricorum  Graecorum;  John  Gill,  Herzfeld  and 
Eusebius,  as  quoted  above. 


134  LITERATURE    AND   CULTURE 

in  this  period  of  enthusiasm,  patriotism  and  pre-eminent 
expectations  of  the  return  of  glory  to  Zion.  They  adopted 
the  popular  Heathen  form  of  Sibylline  prophecies  to  laud 
the  greatness  and  hopes  of  Israel;  and  those  poems  have 
become  portions  of  the  existing  Sibylline  books,  Oracula 
Sihr/llina,  edited  by  Gallaeus  at  Amsterdam,  1689.  The 
original  8il)3'lline  books  were  burnt  in  Rome,  with  the  tem- 
ple of  Jupiter,  in  the  year  84  b.  c.  Again,  Augustus  confis- 
cated and  burnt  about  two  thousand  of  them.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  Maccabean  revolution  and  brilliant  successes, 
the  spirit  of  the  age  among  the  Hebrews  everywhere  was 
patriotic,  enthusiastic  and  profoundly  religious.  Israel's 
faith,  law  and  history  were  lauded  and  expounded  to  the 
Heathens.  Started  by  the  Book  of  Daniel,  a  superabun- 
dance of  glory  was  predicted  to  Zion  by  the  excited  phan- 
tasy of  poets  and  enthusiasts.  The  hopes  were  too  lofty  to 
be  fulfilled ;  a  large  number  of  prophecies  remained  unreal- 
ized, and  fancy  forged  of  it  Messianic  hopes,  as  they  appear 
in  some  of  the  Sibylline  songs  of  this  and  coming  periods. 


IV.    The  Period  of  Independence. 


Sixty-nine  years  of  independence  (142  to  63  b.  c.)  followed  the  revo- 
lutionary war.  During  this  time,  the  Hebrews  grew  up  to  a 
first-class  commonwealth  in  internal  organization,  laws  and  insti- 
tutions, military  capacity,  moral,  intellectual  and  religious  char- 
acter, into  a  state  of  prosperity  and  wealth,  interrupted  only  for 
a  short  time  by  the  feuds  of  the  Sadducees  and  Pharisees.  Al- 
though hemmed  in  by  the  powers  of  Egypt,  Syria  and  Parthia, 
the  Hebrew  government  was  strong  enough  to  maintain  its  in- 
dependence and  to  check  the  violence  of  the  petty  nations  round 
about.     The  rulers  of  this  period  were  : 

1.  Simon,  prince  afid  highpriest,  -        -      142  B.  c. 

2.  John  Hyrcan,  prince  and  highpriest,  with 

Joshua  b.  Perachia  and  Nitai,  of  Arbela, 

at  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin,  -  134  b.  c. 

3.  Juda  Aristobul,  king  and  highpriest,        -      107  b.  c. 

4.  Alexander  Jannai,  king    and    highpriest, 

with  Simon  b.  Shetach  part  of  the  time  at 

the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin,         -        -  105  b.  c. 

5.  Salome   Alexandra,  queen,  and  her  son, 

Hyrcan,  highpriest,  with  Juda  b.  Tabbai 
and  Simon  b.  Shetach  at  the  head  of  the 
Sanhedrin,        -        -        -        -        -        -        78  b.  c. 

6.  Hyrcan  and  then  Aristobul,  king  and  high 

priest,  with  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion  at  the 

head  of  the  Sanhedrin,  -        -         69  to  63  b.  c. 


136  THE    EPOCH   OF   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


The  Epoch  of  Popular  Government. 


1.    The  Demolition  op  Agra. 

The  Hebrew  people  looked  upon  the  year  142  b.  c.  as  th& 
beginning  of  the  new  era  of  independence.  Simon,  al- 
though exercising  the  functions  of  an  independent  prince^ 
was,  nevertheless,  cautious  enough  not  to  assume  sover- 
eignty opposite  foreign  powers,  as  long  as  a  turn  of  events 
in  Syria  could  overthrow  the  new  State.  By  his  energetic 
course  of  action  he  realized  the  projects  of  Jonathan  in 
driving  the  foreign  garrisons  and  the  Syrian  syuii)atliizers 
out  of  the  country,  fortifying  the  cities  and  placing  them 
under  the  control  of  loyal  men,  and  completing  the  fortifi- 
cations of  Jerusalem.  The  garrison  and  inhabitants  of 
Acra,  cut  off  from  the  city  by  a  wall,  could  hold  out  no 
longer.  In  the  year  141  b.  c.  they  capitulated  and  left  the 
country.  Enthusiastic  demonstrations  on  the  part  of  the 
people  marked  the  event,  the  last  vestige  of  foreign  suprem- 
acy had  disappeared ;  therefore,  the  23d  day  of  the  second 
month  was  appointed  a  national  holiday  (1).  In  order, 
however,  that  the  citadel  and  hill  of  Acra,  which  was  higher 
than  the  Temple  INIount,  should  never  again  command  the 
temple,  the  citadel  was  demolished  and  the  hill,  in  the 
course  of  three  years,  was  dug  down  to  a  level  with  Zion. 
This  left  the  Temple  Mount  the  highest  point  in  the  city. 
The  walls  of  the  temple  were  strengthened  by  Simon  and 
the  foundation  laid  to  Castle  Baris,  afterward  Fort  Antonio, 
at  the  north-western  corner  of  the  temple  square,  which 
was  finished  and  named  by  Simon's  son  and  successor. 
The  residence  of  Simon,  afterward  called  the  palace  of  the 


(1)     I.  Maccabees  xiii.  51 ;  Meguillath  Taanith  II. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    POPULAR    GOVERNMENT.  137 

Asmoneans,  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Temple  Mount,  was 
also  built  by  him,  although  his  successors  enlarged  and 
beautified  it. 

2.    The  Asmonean  Dynasty  Established. 

A  grateful  people,  however  patriotic  it  may  be,  is  no  less 
liable  to  fatal  errors  than  traitors  are.  The  services  ren- 
dered to  the  Hebrews  by  the  sons  of  Mattathia,  and  per- 
sonally by  Simon,  were  certainly  eminent.  Those  heroes 
and  statesmen  won  the  independence  of  Israel.  Therefore, 
the  people  committed  the  fatal  error  of  conferring  upon 
Simon  and  his  descendants  forever  the  hereditary  rights  of 
its  prince,  highpriest  and  commander-in-chief,  to  stand  at 
the  head  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  under  the  Laws  of 
Moses.  This  was  done  in  the  year  140  b.  c,  the  28th  daj"- 
of  EUul,  when  priests  and  people,  together  with  the  Sanhed- 
rin  and  rulers,  were  convoked  to  a  great  and  solemn  meet- 
ing in  the  upper  court  of  the  temple  (2).  Then  and  there 
the  hereditary  titles  and  prerogatives  of  prince,  highpriest 
and  commander-in-chief  were  conferred  on  Simon,  which 
placed  him  and  his  heirs  at  the  head  of  the  Hebrew  people 
forever.  Unlike  Gideon  of  old,  he  accepted  all  those  digni- 
ties, and  they  were  secured  to  him  in  a  solemn  covenant 
made  in  the  temple.  This  became  the  source  of  many  mis- 
eries to  Israel.  Yet  it  appears  that  at  the  time,  it  was  the 
unanimous  will  and  wish  of  the  Hebrew  people.  The  de- 
cree of  the  nation  was  engraved  on  brazen  tablets  and 
placed  before  the  community  on  the  Avails  of  the  temple 
and  other  public  places ;  copies  thereof  were  deposited  in 
the  temple  treasury.  So  the  Asmonean  dynasty  was  estab- 
lished, and  the  old  dynasties  of  David  and  Zadok  were  de- 
clared superseded  forever,  since  their  last  representatives, 
Jason  and  Menelaus,  on  the  part  of  the  Zadok  family,  the 
sons  of  Tobias,  on  the  part  of  the  Davidian  family,  had  be- 
trayed tlie  cause  of  Israel  in  his  last  struggle. 


(2)  I.  Maccabees  xiv.  This  place  of  meeting  is  called  Saramel, 
which  ought  to  read  Samarel,  the  divine  court  or  guarding  place  of 
the  temple.  This  was  the  Upper  Court,  also  called  the  Inner  Court, 
which  then  comprised  both  the  Courts  of  Israel  and  priests,  se]ia- 
rated  only  by  steps  (Duchan).  In  this  court  were  the  altar  and  the 
royal  throne.  The  trophies  were  kept  there  It  was  128  cubits  long 
from  east  to  west,  and  1.35  cul>its  wide  from  north  to  south,  sur- 
rounded by  colonnades  and  porches  of  three  rows  of  marble  pillars 
projecting  from  the  cloisters  which  inclosed  it. 


138  THE    EPOCH    OF   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT. 

3.    Demetrius  II.  and  Antiochus  Sidetes. 

In  the  year  142  b.  c,  Demetrius,  misled  by  the  Greeks 
and  Macedonians  of  Parthia,  invaded  that  country,  where 
he  lost  his  army  and  his  liberty.  The  general  of  King  Ar- 
saces  captured  "him.  Demetrius  Avas  treated  well ;  King  Ar- 
saces  gave  him  his  daughter,  and  the  captive  king  aban- 
doned his  wife,  Cleopatra,  who  was  at  Seleucia.  He  being  a 
captive,  his  brother,  Antiochus  Sidetes,  came  to  Syria  with 
an  army  to  overthrow  Tryphon.  Cleopatra  had  succeeded 
in  collecting  a  considerable  army  at  Seleucia  to  enforce  her 
claims.  She  now  sent  to  Antiochus  and  offered  him  her 
hand  and  her  influence.  The  marriage  was  consummated. 
Cleopatra  married  the  third  king  of  Syria,  and  Antiochus 
Sidetes  took  the  field  against  Tryphon,  Avhom  he  defeated 
and  drove  behind  the  walls  of  Dora.  Tryphon  fled  from 
Dora  to  Apamia,  where  he  was  captured  and  slain.  This  set- 
tled the  crown  of  Syria  upon  Antiochus  Sidetes  and  Cleo- 
patra. There  were  then  two  queens,  Cleopatra,  the  one  in 
Syria,  and  her  mother  in  Egypt,  now  the  wife  of  Physcon. 

4.     Simon  and  Antiochus  Sidetes, 

Previous  to  his  landing  in  Syria,  140  b.  c,  Antiochus  Si- 
detes had  sent  letters  to  Simon  in  which,  although  the  in- 
dependence of  .Judea  was  not  clearly  acknowledged,  still  all 
other  riglits  and  privileges  of  the  Hebrews  and  of  Simon, 
personally,  and  the  perfect  independence  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  temple  were  fully  guaranteed,  and  the  sovereign  right 
of  coinage  added  (3).  This  last  point  proves  that  the  in- 
dependence of  Judea  was  not  fully  acknowledged  by  this 
prince.  Simon  accepted  the  privileges,  and  sent  a  second 
■embassy  to  Rome,  this  time  with  a  golden  shield  of  great 
value  as  a  gift  to  the  people,  to  make  sure  of  independence. 
While  Antiochus  besieged  Dora  for  the  first  time,  Simon's 
■embassadors  returned  and  read  to  Antiochus  a  copy  of  the 
treaty  with  the  Romans,  renewed  and  strengthened  with 
Simon,  other  copies  of  which  had  been  sent  to  Demetrius 
and  to  various  nations  in  league  with  Rome.  This  was 
doubly  obnoxious  to  Antiochus.  The  independence  of 
Judea  and  the  Roman  acknowledgment  of  Demetrius  and 
not  of  himself,  were  the  objectionable  points.  Simon  was 
now  willing  to  support  Antiochus  with  men,  money  and 
provisions,  as  an  ally,  not  as  a  vassal ;  but  the  king  refused 
all  offers  and  overthrew  Tryphon  without  Simon's  aid. 
After  the  death  of  Tryphon,  tranquility  being  restored  in 


(3)    I.  Maccabees  xv.  2. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  POPULAR  GOVERNMENT.         139 

Syria,  Antioclius  claimed  one  thousand  talents  especially 
for  Joppe,  Gazara  (4)  and  Acra,  for  damages  done  and  taxes 
collected.  Simon,  on  his  part,  maintained  that  it  was  the 
land  and  property  of  their  fathers  which  the  Hebrews  had  re- 
captured, and  consented  to  pay  one  hundred  talents  for  the 
citadels  and  fortifications  of  Joppe  and  Gazara.  The  opu- 
lence of  Jerusalem  and  Simon's  household  being  reported 
to  the  king,  together  with  the  counter-propositions  of  Simon, 
an  invasion  of  Judea  was  resolved  upon  and  Cendebeus  was 
sent  to  carry  it  on. 

5.     Simon  and  his  Sons  Defeat  Cendebeus. 

Simon's  oldest  sons,  Juda  and  John  (afterward  Hyrcan), 
"were  his  military  lieutenants.  John  resided  at  Gazara  and 
guarded  the  sea  coast.  Cendebeus  invaded  Judea  from  the 
sea  side  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jamnia  and  Joppe,  and  for- 
tified there  a  place  called  Kedron,  a  short  distance  from 
Gazara.  John  came  to  Jerusalem  for  advice  and  assistance. 
Simon,  though  advanced  in  age,  accepted  the  challenge. 
He  had  now  ready  an  army  of  20,000  infantry  and  an 
adequate  number  of  cavalry.  Giving  to  his  two  sons  the 
command  of  the  main  army,  he  brought  up  the  rear  and 
■directed  the  strategical  movements  of  the  whole.  After 
leaving  Jerusalem,  Juda  and  John  tarried  all  night  at  Mo- 
■dain,  near  the  graves  of  their  heroic  grandfather  and  uncles. 
Next  day  they  proceeded  to  meet  the  enemy.  A  battle  was 
fought  and  Cendebeus  was  defeated  with  a  loss  of  two  thou- 
sand men ;  the  survivors  fled  to  Azotus  and  Kedron.  Juda 
was  wounded  in  the  battle,  but  John  pursued  the  enemy 
f  o  Azotus,  took  it  and  burnt  it.  The  victory  was  important, 
because  it  demonstrated  the  power  of  Judea  to  maintain  its 
independence. 

6.    The  First  Hebrew  Coins. 

Simon  coined  no  money  till  the  year  138  b.  c,  when,  by 
the  defeat  of  Cendebeus,  he  felt  convinced  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  Judea  was  firmly  established.  Now  the  an- 
cient silver  Shekel,  half  and  quarter  Shekel,  were  re-intro- 
duced, called  (^XitJ^  ^py>)  "Shekels  of  Israel,"  dated  from 
the  first,  second  year,  etc.  of  (IVV  TOX27)  "  the  Redemption 
of  Zion "  or  nii^lp  ch^M''  "  Jerusalem  the  Holy."  The  in- 
scriptions were  in   the   ancient  (Hebrew)   letters,  and   the 

(4)  Gazara  is  not  identical  with  Gaza.  Gazara  was  an  important 
strategic  point  west  of  Jerusalem.  See  Dr.  Stark's  Gaza,  etc.,  p. 
495,  e.  s. 


140  THE    EPOCH   OF   POPULAR   GOVERXMENT. 

effigies  were  the  palm  tree,  with  the  priestly  chalice  on  the- 
reverse.  The  half  shekel  had  under  the  palm  tree,  two 
baskets  filled  with  dates,  and  on  the  reverse,  two  palm 
branches  and  a  citron  between.  There  are  extant,  of  Si- 
mon's coins,  the  shekel,  half-shekel  and  quarter-shekel  (5). 

7.    The  Death  of  Simon. 

Four  years  of  peace  and  prosperity  followed  in  Palestine^ 
under  the  administration  of  Simon,  who  was  as  diligent  a 
student  of  the  Law  as  he  was  an  energetic  governor,  pious 
highpriest  and  popular  prince.  There  was  none  to  disturb 
or  molest  him ;  he  was  the  favorite  of  his  people  and  the 
terror  of  his  enemies.  In  his  own  family,  however,  he  had 
nourished  a  poisonous  serpent,  his  own  son-in-law,  Ptolemy^ 
son  of  Habub,  governor  of  Jericho.  He  invited  Simon  and 
his  wife,  with  their  two  sons,  Juda  and  Mattathia,  to  his 
castle  at  Dock,  near  Jericho.  The  guests  arrived  and  par- 
took freely  of  the  royal  banquet,  also  of  the  wine.  When. 
they  were  under  its  influence,  armed  servants  of  Ptolemy 
rushed  into  the  hall  and  slew  the  hoary  prince.  His  wife 
and  sons  were  captured  and  imprisoned  in  the  castle,  men. 
were  despatched  to  slay  John  Hyrcan,  to  take  possession  of 
the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  notify  Antiochus  Sidetes  of 
the  foul  assassination.  Ptolemy  expected  that  Antiochus 
Sidetes  would  come  at  oiice  and  put  the  assassin  at  the 
head  of  the  Hebrews.  It  was  in  the  month  of  Shebat,  134 
B.  c,  when  Simon,  73  years  old,  fell  by  the  hand  of  the  as- 
sassin hired  by  Antioclius  Sidetes. 

8.     John  Hyrcan  Succeeds  Simon. 

John  Hyrcan,  residing  at  Gazara,  was  informed  of  the 
assassination  of  Simon  in  time  to  foil  the  other  schemes  of 
Ptolemy.  When  his  emissaries  arrived  at  Gazara,  they 
were  captured  and  slain.  John  arrived  in  Jerusalem  before 
Ptolemy's  men,  and  had  taken  the  reins  of  the  government 
into  his  hands  before  his  enemy  had  done  anything.  Being- 
the  legitimate  heir  of  Simon,  he  was  at  once  proclaimed 
prince  and  highpriest.  John  was  before  Dock  before  Ptol- 
emy could  prepare  for  the  emergency.  He  threatened  to 
whip  John's  mother  in  case  her  son  should  assault  the  cas- 
tle, and  did  so  at  the  first  attempt.  Although  the  mother 
repeatedly  encouraged  her  son  not  to  heed  her  pains,  but  to 
take  the  castle  and  punish  the  assassin,  still  John  could 


(5)    See  Geschichte  der  Jued.  Munzen,  Dr.  M.  A.  Levy,  p.  40,  etc. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  POPULAR  GOVERNMENT.        141 

not  overcome  his  filial  compassion,  and  accepted  the  propo- 
sition of  Ptolemy  to  let  him  go  unharmed  and  to  leave  the 
country.  Ptolemy  acted  upon  the  terms  of  the  amnesty, 
but  before  doing  so,  he  first  slew  John's  mother  and  his  two 
brothers,  and  then  fled  to  Philadelphia,  in  Amnion,  a  dis- 
graced assassin. 

9.     Palestine  Invaded  by  Sidetes. 

Antiochus  Sidetes  came  with  a  large  army  to  Palestine 
before  John  was  prepared  to  meet  him.  Before  John  could 
raise  an  adequate  force,  the  enemy  encamped  before  Jerusa- 
lem, which  was  besieged  during  the  whole  summer.  It  was 
the  Sabbath  year,  134  to  133  b.  c,  and  provisions  were 
scarce.  Want  of  water  in  the  city  increased  the  sufferings. 
Still  the  defenders  would  not  yield,  and  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem appeared  imjjregnable.  They  sent  the  non-combatants 
out  of  the  city,  but  Antiochus  would  not  let  them  pass  through 
his  lines,  and  after  much  sufft'ring  they  had  to  be  taken 
back  into  the  city.  The  Feast  of  Booths  approached  and 
the  rainy  season  came  near.  John  asked  of  Sidetes  seven 
day's  armistice  during  the  feast,  and  animals  to  make  the 
prescribed  sacrifices.  It  was  granted.  During  the  feast 
peace  was  negotiated  and  concluded.  Antiochus  was  satis- 
fied with  500  talents  of  silver  and  hostages,  to  secure  the 
fulfillment  of  the  main  stipulations,  viz.,  that  John  Hyrcan 
would  supjjort  the  Syrian  king  in  his  contemplated  invasion 
of  Parthia.  Antiochus  destroyed  some  of  the  fortifications 
of  Jerusalem  and  left  the  country,  keeping  only  Joppe  and 
Oazara  under  his  sway ;  he  claimed  them  as  S3'rian  cities. 
But  where  did  John  Hyrcan  find  the  monc}'?  He  paid  300 
talents  at  once.  It  Avas  most  likely  taken  from  the  temijle 
treasury,  and  the  unsuspecting  people  were  told  that  lie 
had  opened  the  sepulcher  of  David  and  found  2,500  tal- 
ents therein. 

10.     The  Zuggoth — A  Concession  Made  by  John  Hyrcan. 

In  the  Hebrew  records,  the  two  heads  of  the  Sanhedrin 
are  called  Zicggoth  "  the  pair,"  of  which  Jose  b.  Joezer  and 
Jose  b.  John  would  have  been  the  first,  if  they  had  been  de 
jure  the  heads  of  the  Sanhedrin ;  but  they  were  not ;  they 
were  scholasts  (m^StJ'x))  representative  men  of  the  Antigo- 
nus  school.  Therefore,  Joshua  b.  Perachia  was  the  first 
Nassi,  prince  president,  and  Nitai,  of  Arbela,  in  Galilee,  the 
first  Ab-Beth-Din,  chief-justice,  oif  the  Sanhedrin  ;  the  first 
Zuggoth,  who  were  no  priests,  and  the  heads  of  the  San- 


142  THE    EPOCH   OF   POPULAR    GOVERNMENT. 

hedrin  de  jure  and  de  facto  (mD3iD  ^roK't^)  (6).  They 
were  appointed  by  John  Hyrcan  (7),  and  this  closed  the 
"  High  Court  of  the  Asmoneans,"  to  be  succeeded  by  the 
Sanhedrin,  organized  as  a  body  of  laynaen,  although  the 
priests  were  not  excluded,  presided  over  by  the  principal 
scribes,  the  bearers  of  the  traditions,  independent  of  their 
birth  (8).  This  was  a  memorable  concession  to  the  Phari- 
sees, who,  as  the  sequel  will  show,  were  opposed  to  the  con- 
centration of  power  in  one  individual,  and,  like  the  proph- 
ets of  old,  did  not  favor  the  monopoly  of  spiritual  and 
scholastic  functions  by  the  tribe  of  Levy.  They  placed  the 
scribe  higher  than  the  priest  and  the  sage  above  the  prophet 
(9).  This  concession,  it  is  maintained  in  the  Mishnah,  so 
pleased  and  pacified  the  multitude  that  the  hammer,  an- 
nouncing by  its  noise  in  Jerusalem  the  time  to  pay  the  taxes, 
was  abolished,  as  no  person  in  the  land  was  suspected  of 
negligence  in  the  payment  thereof;  all  the  agitators  and  ruf- 
fians were  overcome,  peace,  satisfaction  and  good  govern- 
ment were  completely  restored  (10).  John  Hyrcan,  perhaps, 
was  not  the  man  to  preside  over  the  Sanhedrin  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  Pharisees.  His  father  was  an  acknowledged 
student  of  the  Law  (I.  Maccabees  xiv.  14),  and  had  been 
appointed  by  Mattathia  as  the  chief  counselor  of  the  na- 
tion [Ibid  XL  65) ;  while  Hyrcan  was  not  distinguished  for 
learning,  and  could  inherit  only  the  titles  expressly  con- 

(6)  The  priest  of  the  same  name,  Joshua  b.  Perachia,  in  the  time 
of  liillei,  of  course,  was  another  man.  See  Jacob  Brill's  Ae/vo  lla- 
mishauli,  p.  20,  and  Jalkut  Sunoni,  Sec.  7G1.  This,  perhaps,  was  the 
man  who  is  mentioned  in  the  Talmudical  legends  as  the  teacher  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

(7)  This  is  stated  twice  in  Yerushalmi,  Maaser  Sheni  v.  8  and 
Sotak  ix.  11,  niJlT  T'Dyn ;  only  that  those  expounders  who  misun- 
derstood the  passage  ibid,  at  the  beginning  of  Jlalacluih  x.,  in  regard 
to  the  Aschcoloth,  imposed  strange  ideas  on  that  plain  statement. 

(8)  It  is  not  proved  from  Joseplms  xx.  ix.  1,  that  the  highpriest 
was  the  president  of  the  Sanhedrin,  because  the  body  mentioned 
there  was  not  the  Great  Sanhedrin,  its  convocation  was  not  lawful, 
and  it  is  not  said  that  the  highpriest  presided.  Nor  does  Antiq.  xiv. 
ix.  4  and  5  i)rove  it,  because  Hjrcan  was  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
He,  personally,  was  appointed  by  Julius  Caesar  as  the  highest  author- 
ity of  the  Hebi-ews  in  ail  questions  about  Jewish  customs  (Antiquities 
xiv.  X.  2 1,  and  this  particular  privilege  was  not  made  hereditary. 

(9)  MisHNAU  Horioth  III.,  8  ,  Yerusualmi  Sanhedrin  xi.  6.     N^3J 

'^y\  r^n  p  n'o^  jpn 

(10)  Mishnah  Mafflser  Sheni  v.  15;  Sotah  ix.  10.  The  commen- 
taries do  not  admit  this  exposition  of  the  above  Mishnah  ;  still  I  can 
find  no  other  sense  in  the  terms.  The  Alenrerin  are  agitators  and  the 
Noki'Jiii  "  ruttians,"  or  those  who  strike.  The  hammer  can  only  refer 
to  the  taxes,  as  the  two  sentences  are  closely  connected. 


THE   EPOCH   OF   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT.  143 

ferred  on  his  father,  of  highpriest,  prince  and  commander-in- 
chief.  Like  his  people,  he  was  intensely  religious,  patriotic 
and  zealously  attached  to  the  ritual  Laws  of  Moses ;  he 
may,  therefore,  have  made  this  concession  from  religious 
scruples  and  patriotic  motives ;  although,  it  appears,  that 
circumstances  forced  him  to  it.  Succeeding  his  father 
under  distressing  circumstances,  and  having  partially  lost 
his  independence  and  treasures  in  his  defense  against  An- 
tiochus  Sidetes,  he  depended  too  much  on  public  favor  to 
rule  without  the  popular  consent ;  and  the  Pharisees,  or 
more  particularly  the  scribes,  governed  public  opinion.  Any- 
how, it  proved  a  wise  and  pacifying  concession. 

11.     Joshua  b.  Perachia  and  Nitai  of  Arbela. 

Little  is  known  about  the  Sanhedrin  over  which  the  first 
ZuGGOTH  presided.  It  could  only  liave  been  with  its  con- 
sent that  John  abolished  the  Confession  at  the  bringing  of 
the  tithe,  although  it  is  literally  prescribed  in  the  Law 
(Deuter.  xxvi.  12  to  15) ;  because  it  is  stated  therein,  "And 
I  have  also  given  it  to  the  Levite,"  while  this  was  not  done 
any  longer.  One-third  of  the  tithe  was  brought  to  Jerusa- 
lem for  the  priests  and  Levites  in  active  service,  as  Nehe- 
miah  had  ordained.  The  other  third  was  given  to  either 
the  priests  or  Levites.  The  last  third  was  given  to  the  poor, 
etc.,  and  to  the  pious  students  of  Jerusalem  (11).  This 
shows  that  the  Pharisees  were  no  literalists,  and  made  con- 
sideralde  changes  in  the  Laws  of  Moses.  We  also  know 
that  the  Nassi,  or  president  of  the  Sanhedrin,  could  not 
make  a  law ;  for  Joshua  b.  Perachia  prohibited  the  use  of 
wheat  imported  from  Egypt,  on  account  of  its  being  Leviti- 
cally  unclean,  and  the  prohibition  was  not  accepted  ;  "  Then 
that  wheat  is  unclean  to  Joshua  b.  Perachia,  and  clean  for 
everybody  else,"  was  the  conclusion  (12) ;  although  the  laws 
concerning  Levitical  cleanness  had  become  so  popular  that 
John,  during  his  official  term,  sacrificed  two  red  heifers, 
Avhich  had  not  been  done  since  the  time  of  Simon  the  Just 
(13).  There  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  this  Sanhedrin 
established  the  law  that  no  war  upon  any  foreign  nation 
could  be  commenced  without  the  consent  of  the  Sanhedrin 
(14),  as  it  was  called  upon  to  regulate  its  relations  to  the 
executive  power,  and  to  enact  the  main  political  laws  which 

(11)  Yerushalmi,  Maaser  Sheni,  end  ^i^  nJK'X"13 

(12)  See  Zachariah  Frankel's  Darkei  Ham'mishnah  p,  34. 

(13)  MiSHNAH,  Farah  III.  5. 

(14)  Ibid  Sanhedrin  I.  5. 


144  THE   EPOCH   OP   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT. 

the  new  and  independent  state  required.  We  know,  fur- 
thermore, of  the  two  heads  of  this  Sanhedrin,  that  the}^,  as 
their  predecessors  and  successors  did,  disagreed  on  the 
point  of  Seinicha^  the  ordination  of  tlie  scribes  (15) ;  and 
that  they  left  on  record  the  following  characteristic  mottoes 
(16):  Joshua  b.  Perachia  said,  "Procure  thee  a  teacher, 
purchase  thee  an  associate,  and  judge  every  man  charita- 
bly." Nitai,  of  Arbela,  said,  "  Keep  far  away  from  a  bad 
neighbor,  associate  not  with  the  wicked,  and  think  not  that 
punishment  would  not  come."  Nitai's  motto  may  be  polit- 
ical and  refer  to  the  treaty  with  Antiochus  Sidetes,  as  also 
with  some  petty  nations  around  Palestine,  whom  John  and 
his  sons  afterward  conquered  and  who  became  merged  in 
the  Hebrews.  The  motto  of  Joshua  affords  an  insight  into 
the  spirit  of  that  age,  when  the  study  of  the  Law  to  unravel 
its  profound  teachings  was  considered  the  most  meritorious 
exercise  of  the  Hebrew  mind.  Joshua  demanded  regular 
education  by  a  competent  master,  with  classmates,  and  led 
by  the  principle  of  charity  and  benevolence.  He  evidently 
opposed  that  solitary  eremitism  to  penetrate  into  the  mys- 
teries of  the  creation,  the  cosmos  and  human  physiology 
(MisHNAH  Hagigah  II.  1),  which  then,  with  the  rise  of  the 
Essenes,  had  its  beginning.  Therefore,  it  is  most  likely 
that  the  next  following  Mishnah,  in  which  the  difference  of 
opinion  about  Semichah  is  recorded,  refers  to  the  preceding 
one,  and  not  to  sacrifices.  Those  who  are  engaged  in  those 
mystical  researches  should  not  be  ordained  as  judges, 
teachers  and  senators,  according  to  Joshua  and  others,  and 
may  be  ordained  according  to  Nitai  and  others.  Both  adages 
may  also  refer  to  this  point.  According  to  Joshua,  none 
must  study  alone,  and  the  mysteries  of  human  physiology 
(nviy)  must  be  expounded  before  no  more  than  two  at  a 
time,  the  mysteries  of  the  creation  (n'C'S")l  T\^V^)  before  no 
more  than  one  at  a  time,  and  the  mysteries  of  the  cosmos 
(n33")»)  before  one  only,  who  is  himself  a  sage  and  compe- 
tent of  independent  and  intelligent  judgment.  It  is  also 
against  this  ordinance  that  Nitai  says,  "  to  keep  away  from 
a  bad  neighbor,"  etc.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  con- 
templative life  and  mystical  speculations  had  their  start 
then  with  the  Essenes. 

12.    The  Invasion  op  Parthia. 

Under  the  pretext  of  releasing  his  brother,  Demetrius, 
from  captivity,  in  reality,  however,  to  re-establish  the  former 


(15)  Ibid  Hagigah  II.  2. 

(16)  Ibid  Abolh  I.  6,  7. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    POPULAR   GOV'ERNMENT.  145 

boundaries  of  the  Syrian  kingdom  in  the  East.  Antiochus 
Sidetes,  in  131  b.  c,  invaded  Parthia  with  an  army  of  above 
80,000  men  and  a  larger  number  of  camp  followers.  John 
Hyrcan,  with  his  army,  went  with  the  king  on  this  expedi- 
tion. It  was  successful  in  the  first  attempt.  Babylonia 
and  Media  were  conquered,  and  the  eastern  borders  of  Syria 
re-established  as  in  the  time  of  Antiochus  the  Great.  The 
Hebrew  soldiers  in  the  field  never  forgot  their  religious  obli- 
gations. The  Feast  of  Pentecost  happening  on  a  Sunday, 
Antiochus  was  obliged  to  suspend  operations  for  two  suc- 
cessive days  (17).  Their  part  in  the  successful  campaign 
became  obvious  in  the  next.  For  with  the  beginning  of  the 
winter,  John  Hyrcan  returned  to  Jerusalem  with  his  army, 
either  because  Antiochus  believed  he  needed  their  assist- 
ance no  longer,  or  because  they  had  performed  their  task  ac- 
cording to  the  treaty.  In  the  next  campaign,  the  army  of 
Antiochus  was  overthrown  and  he  was  slain  by  the  Par- 
thians.  Demetrius  II.,  previously  released  from  captivity, 
had  returned  to  Syria  and  ascended  again  its  undermined 
throne. 

13.    John  Hyrcan's  First  Conquests. 

John  Hyrcan,  after  his  return  from  the  East,  had  a  well- 
organized  army  of  disciplined  soldiers.  The  death  of  Anti- 
ochus and  the  loss  of  his  army,  paralyzed  Syria  moment- 
arily ;  the  returning  Demetrius  could  not  enter  the  field, 
and  when  he  had  partially  recovered  his  strength,  Syria  was 
threatened  by  other  invaders,  who  claimed  its  crown.  Hyr- 
can seized  upon  the  opportunity  and  made  the  attempt  to 
take  from  Syria  such  cities  and  districts  as  were  claimed  to 
be  integral  portions  of  the  Hebrew  land.  He  went  across 
the  Jordan,  and,  after  a  siege  of  six  months,  took  Medaba  at 
the  south-eastern  frontier  (Isaiah  xv.  2),  the  district  and 
city  of  Saniega  on  the  eastern  line,  re-crossed  the  Jordan, 
took  Shechem  and  Gerizzim  from  the  Samaritans  or  Cuthim, 
and  destroyed  their  deserted  temple,  which,  it  appears,  was 
still  a  Heathen  place  of  worship,  as  it  had  been  made  in  the 
year  167  b.  c.  This  appears  to  have  been  accomplished  in 
one  campaign  (130  b.  c),  carried  on  simultaneously  in  Sa- 
maria and  beyond  Jordan  (18).  Hyrcan  had  inherited  an 
aversion  against  the  sectarian  Samaritans  who  deserted  Israel 

(17)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xiii.  viii.  4. 

(18)  It  is  certainly  doubtful  whether  John  Hyrcan  had  taken 
Aleppo  or  Halab,  on  his  return  from  Parthia,  it  not  being  afterward 
mentioned  anywhere  that  he  possessed  it.  See  Graetz,  Vol.  III.,  7th 
Note,  p.  448. 


146  THE   EPOCH   OF   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT. 

in  the  time  of  need  and  stood  aloof  during  all  the  years  of 
national  struggle,  were  opponents  of  the  Hebrews  at  home  and 
in  Alexandria,  and  a  hostile  organization  in  the  heart  of 
Palestine.  This  conquest  inade  an  end  to  their  political  or- 
ganization without,  however,  changing  their  sectarian  belief, 

14.  John  Hyrcan's  Second  Conquests. 

Having  thus  rounded  the  eastern  boundaries,  the  south- 
ern line  had  to  be  rectified.  The  Idumeans  had  always 
been  engaged  on  the  side  of  Israel's  enemies,  especially 
so  in  the  late  struggles  for  independence.  They  occu- 
pied part  of  the  Hebrew  territory,  and  claimed  to  be  chil- 
dren of  Abraham.  Their  enmity  to  the  Hebrew  people 
could  rise  only  from  religious  prejudices.  Therefore,  John 
Hyrcan  (in  129  b.  c),  invaded  Idumea.  Having  driven  the 
Idumeans  out  of  Dora  (19),  which  they  had  held,  and  out  of 
Marissa  (20),  he  overran  their  entire  country  and  subjected 
it  completely.  In  order  to  prevent  any  recurrence  of  hos- 
tilities on  their  part,  the  alternative  was  proposed  to  them, 
either  to  become  completely  naturalized  citizens  in  the  He- 
brew commonwealth,  by  circumcision  and  submission  to  the 
laws,  or  to  leave  the  country.  They  preferred  the  former, 
and  were  merged  in  the  Hebrews.  The  same  year,  Mithri- 
dates  mounted  the  throne  of  Parthia,  and  Cleopatra,  Phys- 
con  being  exiled,  governed  Egypt. 

15.  John  Hyrc^vn's  Embassy  to  Rome. 

These  successes  in  the  field  encouraged  Hyrcan  to  free 
himself  from  the  alliance  and  obligations  into  which  he  had 
been  forced  by  Antiochus  Sidetes.  He  sent  an  embassy  to 
Rome  to  procure  its  consent  in  annulling  the  treaty  made  in 
distress,  with  a  king  not  acknowledged  by  the  Romans.  The 
mission  was  successful,  the  propositions  of  Jolin  Hyrcan 
were  fully  entertained,  and  the  resolves  of  the  senate  made 
known  to  the  rulers  of  the  nations  leagued  with  Rome.  Next 
year,  Hyrcan  sent  a  golden  cup  and  shield  to  Rome,  which 
were  well  received,  and  another  decree  was  issued  in  confirm- 
ation of  the  independence  of  the  Hebrews  and  their  al- 
liance with  the  Roman  people. 


(19)  Dora  was  on  the  sea  shore,  where  Tartura  now  is,  and  was 
most  likely  still  garrisoned  by  Idumeans. 

(20)  IMarissa,  anciently,  must  have  been  a  city  of  the  Israelites 
near  the  sea  shore ;  therefore,  the  northern  city  of  the  same  name, 
near  Hazai,  was  called  Marissa,  of  the  Gentiles. 


the  epoch  of  popular  government.  147 

16.     Another  Alliance  with  Syria  —  Changes  in  Syria 

AND  Egypt. 

When  Demetrius  had  returned  from  Parthia,  after  the 
death  of  his  brotlier,  Antiochiis  Sidetes.  he  made  peace  with 
his  first  wife,  Cleopatra,  who  had  taken  up  her  residence  at 
Ptolemais.  He  went  (127  b.  c.)  with  an  army  to  Egypt  to 
assist  his  mother-in-law,  Cleopatra,  against  Physcon.  Mean- 
while, several  Syrian  cities  rose  in  a  formidable  rebellion 
pgainst  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  contest  and 
to  flee  to  her  daughter  at  Ptolemais.  Physcon,  to  avenge 
himself  on  Demetrius,  set  up  an  impostor,  whose  name 
was  Alexander  Zebina,  as  a  son  of  Alexander  Balas.  He 
gave  him  an  army,  and  Alexander  invaded  Syria  to  take 
possession  of  its  crown.  Many  dissatisfied  Syrians  sup- 
ported him.  In  the  year  126  b.  c,  the  contestants  fought  a 
battle  near  Damascus,  in  which  Demetrius  was  defeated. 
He  fled  to  liis  wife  at  Ptolemais,  but  the  revengeful  woman 
had  the  gates  of  the  city  closed  against  him.  He  fled  to 
Tyre,  and  was  there  captured  and  slain.  Now  his  wife 
claimed  the  Syrian  throne  and  held  a  portion  of  Syria,  and 
Alexander  Zebina  was  king  over  the  other  portion.  John 
Hyrcan  entered  into  an  alliance  with  this  Alexander,  from 
which  he  derived  no  benefit,  and  the  league  was  of  short 
duration,  for  in  the  year  124  b.  c,  Seleucus,  the  son  of  De- 
metrius and  Cleopatra,  claiming  his  hereditary  right,  was 
proclaimed  king  of  Syria,  and  after  a  year's  reign,  he  was 
assassinated  by  his  own  mother.  She  gave  the  crown  to 
her  second  son,  Antiochus  Grypus  (also  called  Philometor, 
and  on  his  coins,  Epiphanes).  He  married  the  daughter  of 
Physcon,  who  furnished  him  with  an  army  to  overcome  his 
opponent,  which  was  done  in  122  b.  c,  and  Alexander  Ze- 
bina was  slain.  Antiochus  Grypus  was  naturally  an  enemy 
of  the  Hebrews  on  account  of  their  alliance  with  Alexan- 
der. He  would  certainly  have  invaded  Judea  if  the  two 
kingdoms  of  Syria  and  Egypt  had  not  been  disabled  by  in- 
ternal dissensions.  Cleopatra  attempting  to  poison  her  son,, 
Grypus,  he  slew  her  as  she  had  slain  his  brother.  Next 
year  Physcon  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  second  wife 
and  sister,  also  called  Cleopatra,  with  her  son,  Lathyrus,. 
who  called  himself  Soter.  In  114  b.  c,  Antiochus  Cyzi- 
cenus,  a  half  brother  of  Grypus,  son  of  Antiochus  Sidetes 
and  Cleopatra,  claimed  the  Syrian  crown.  He  had  married 
another  daughter  of  Physcon,  also  called  Cleopatra,  who 
had  brought  him  a  considerable  army;  and  these  two  half 
brothers,  married  to  two  sisters,  carried  on  a  bloody  war  ia 
Syria. 


1:48  tre  epoch  of  popular  government. 

17.     John  Hyrcan's  Third  Conquests. 

These  political  commotions  in  Syria  and  Eg3''i3t  protected 
John  Hyrcan  against  the  evil  consequences  of  his  impru- 
dent alliance  with  an  impostor,  and  afibrded  him  the  oppor- 
tunity of  maintaining  profound  peace  in  Judea  up  tt)  the 
year  110  b.  c.     In  this  year,  the  Syrian  Empire  was  divided 
between  the  two  brothers  ;  Cyzicenus  reigned  at  Damascus 
over  Coelosyria  and  Phoenicia,  and  Grypus  at  Antioch  over 
the  rest  of  Syria.     The  Hebrews  had  become  strong  enough 
not  to  fear  either  of  the  two  kings.    Therefore,  John  Hyrcan 
sent  an  army,  under  his  two  sons,  Aristobulus  and  Antigo- 
nus,  to  take  the  city  of  Samaria,  which,  since  the  daj's  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  had  been  inhabited  by  Pagans,  who  of 
late  had  done  great  wrongs  to  the  Hebrew  colony  at  Marissa. 
They  besieged  that  city,  and  its  inhabitants,  hard  pressed, 
sent  to  Antiochus  Cyzicenus  for  help.     An  army  was  sent 
from  Damascus  to  assist  them.     The  two  Hebrew  princes, 
however,  without  raising  the   siege  of  Samaria,   advanced 
with   part   of    their   army,   met  and   defeated    the  enem}'-, 
and  drove  them  behind  the  walls  of  Scythopolis,  and  then 
continued  the  siege  of  Samaria.     Antiochus  was  reinforced 
with  6,000  men  sent  by  Latliyrus  from  Egypt,  contrary  to 
the  will  of  his  mother.     The  enemy  ravaged  the  country,  as 
they  could  not  venture  a  jiitched  battle.     This  army  was 
also  met  by  the   Hebrews  and  forced  to  retire  to  Tripoli, 
Avhere  it  was   left  under  command  of  two  generals,  one  of 
whom,  Callimander,  was  slain  in  battle ;  and  the  other,  Epi- 
crates,  who  was  bribed  by  the  Hebrews,  delivered  to  them 
Sc^'thopolis  and  the  adjacent  cities,  and  did  them  no  more 
harm.     In  the  year  109  B.  c,  Samaria  was  taken  and  razed 
to  the  ground.     Ditches  were  dug  and  the  water  let  in  upon 
the  spot  where  the  city  had  stood,  so  that  it  was  called  Ir 
NebrecJita^  "  city  of  ditches,"  and  the  day  of  its  capture, 
the  25th  of  Marcheshvon,  was  made  a  national  holiday,  be- 
cause it  was  the  last  Pagan  stronghold  in  the  country. 

18.     The  Hebrews  in  Egypt. 

The  HebrcAvs  of  Egypt,  Cyrene  and  Cyprus,  under  the 
reign  of  Cleopatra,  were  very  prosperous.  She  felt  an  aver- 
sion against  her  son  Lathyrus,  and  would  not  intrust  him 
with  the  command  of  her  arnn^  The  two  sons  of  the  priest 
Onias,  Chelkias  and  Ananias,  enjoyed  her  confidence  and 
commanded  her  armies.  Therefore,  hers  Avas  called  the 
Onias  party,  and  all  her  soldiers  were  called  Hebrews,  al- 
though they  were  mercenary  troops  of  various  nationalities. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    POPULAR    GOVERNMENT.  149 

However,  this  state  of  affairs  in  Egypt  contributed  largely 
to  John  Hyrcan's  successes,  and  afterward  saved  his  son 
from  utter  destruction. 

19.    The  Spirit  op  the  Age. 

The  spirit  of  the  age  in  Palestine  was  intensely  religious, 
patriotic  and  exclusiv^e.  It  was  by  religious  enthusiasm 
that  the  battles  had  been  fought  and  independence  gained. 
A  very  pious  priestly  family  stood  at  the  head  of  the  na- 
tion, and  the  enemies  fought  and  overcome  were  heathens, 
apostates  and  renegades,  of  sensual  proclivities  and  lax 
morals.  All  around  Palestine  there  were  heathen  temples, 
pagan  myths,  debasing  cultes,  slavery  and  degradation ; 
while  down  from  Mount  Moriah,  and  from  a  thousand 
synagogues  and  academies,  there  were  daily  proclaimed  and 
expounded  those  sublime  doctrines  and  principles  of  mo- 
notheism, freedom  and  ethics,  which  prompted  the  Hebrew 
to  become  wiser  and  holier  than  his  neighbor.  In  their 
religious  zeal,  the  Hebrews  could  not  help  being  exclusive, 
although  they  never  underrated  human  nature  and  God's 
paternal  goodness  to  all  men ;  never  ceased  to  hope  for  the 
redemption  of  all  the  human  family,  and  to  pray  for  it. 
The  seventy  bullocks  sacrificed  upon  the  altar  on  the  Feast 
of  Booths,  they  believed  were  offered  up  annually  in  behalf 
of  the  seventy  nations,  supposed  to  "compose  the  human 
family,  to  make  atonement  for  them,  that  they  be  not  ex- 
tinguished (21).  They  were  not  exclusive  against  men,  for 
they  accepted  the  Idumeans,  or  any  other  Gentile,  among 
themselves  to  equal  rights  and  religious  hopes.  They  were 
exclusive  against  Paganism  and  the  corruption  of  its 
votaries.  Their  country  and  their  religion  were  so  closely 
united  by  the  Mosaic  laws,  the  institutions  of  Ezra,  the 
reminiscences  of  fourteen  centuries  of  history,  and  they 
had  just  made  such  great  sacrifices  for  both,  that  they  were 
as  zealously  patriotic  as  they  were  religious.  However, 
piety  with  them  was  not  based  upon  metaphysical  specula- 
tions and  abstractions.  They  justly  pointed  to  their  Gre- 
cized  neighbors,  who,  with  the  philosophy  and  poetry  of 
Greece,  had  run  into  all  kinds  of  absurdities  and  degrada- 
tions. They  abandoned  Greek  philosophy,  and  although  it 
was  not  expressly  prohibited  to  learn  Greek  and  study 
philosophy,  yet  it  was  under  the  ban  of  public  opinion. 


(21)    Compare  Succnh  55  b,  and  Pesikta  of  R.  Kahana  193  c  and 
the  Midrashim  quoted  in  Solomon  Buber's  note  to  this  passage. 


150  THE   EPOCH   OF    POPULAR   GOVERNMENT, 

Philosophical  studies  had  been  exiled  from  Palestine  to 
find  a  home  among  the  Hebrews  of  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor. 
Piety  with  them  signified  the  conscientious  practice  of  the 
Laws  of  Moses,  as  understood  and  expounded  by  their  own 
legitimate  authorities,  the  Sanhedrin,  scribes  and  priests ; 
and  this  was  also  their  practical  patriotism.  The  funda- 
mental principle  was  sound,  although  it  naturally  led  many 
over-conscientious  men  into  literalism  and  formalism.  In 
their  anxiety  to  do  exactly  as  the  Law  commands,  every 
letter  thereof  became  very  important  to  them,  and  every 
Avord  suggested  new  restrictions  and  observances.  While 
the  Sanliedrin  was  engaged  in  expounding  the  Law,  to 
establish  derivative  laws,  as  the  new  state  of  affairs  and 
daily  emergencies  required,  especially  in  establishing  an  in- 
dependent government,  the  Sopherim  in  synagogues  and 
academies  imitated  the  method,  and  surrounded  private 
life  with  derivative  laws,  restrictions  and  observances, 
wliich  were  eagerly  embraced  and  conscientiously  practiced 
by  tlie  religious  and  i^atriotic  multitude.  The  majority  of 
Soi^herim  and  members  of  the  Sanhedrin  were  Pharisees, 
and  so  the  majority  of  the  people  became  Pharisaical  in 
spirit  and  belief,  if  not  strictly  in  i3ractice.  This  made  them 
temperate,  frugal,  anxiously  moral  and  zealously  religious ; 
although  it  led  many  into  the  practices  of  dire  ascetics,  and 
an  undue  separation  from  Gentiles  and  non-Pharisees,  on 
account  of  the  laws  of  Levitical  cleanness. 

20.     The  Political  Parties. 

The  spirit  of  the  age  manifested  itself  in  the  three  par- 
ties in  correspondence  with  their  respective  fundamental 
principles.  The  Essenes  standing  aloof  from  the  political 
idea  were  forced  into  the  contemplative  life,  the  rigid 
practice  of  Levitical  cleanness,  and,  not  counterpoised  by 
either  philosophical  thought  or  political  ideals,  descended 
into  the  depth  of  mysticism,  with  a  peculiar  angelology 
and  fantastic  cosmology,  a  mystic-allegoric  method  of  ex- 
pounding Scriptures,  claims  of  superior  holiness,  the  gifts 
of  prophecy,  oneirocritics  and  therapeutics  ;  but  exercised 
no  visible  influence  on  the  government  and  legislation  of 
the  nation.  Among  the  Sadducees,  with  whom  the  political 
idea  predominated,  the  establishment  of  a  strong  inde- 
jjendent  government,  Avith  a  rigid  penal  code  to  support  it, 
was  the  main  object.  They  opposed  the  progressive  legisla- 
tion of  the  Pharisees,  and  maintained  the  Law  of  IMoses 
and  the  customs  of  the  fathers  rigidly  enforced  to  the  very 


THE    EPOCH   OF   POPULAR   GOVERNMENT.  151 

literal  sense  of  "  Eye  for  eye,"  etc.  (22),  were  sufficient  to 
govern  tlie  nation,  and  to  place  its  prince  in  an  independent 
position.  The  Pharisees,  with  whom  the  religious  idea 
predominated,  did  not  wish  a  strong  government  and  any 
concentration  of  power  in  one  person.  They  started  from  the 
fundamental  laws  and  principles  of  Moses  and  the  fathers, 
repealed  or  amended  existing  laws,  changed  the  penal  laws 
of  Moses  to  suit  a  more  advanced  civilization,  and  strictly 
adhered  to  the  principle,  that  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  all 
men  are  equal,  all  amenable  to  the  same  law,  with  equal 
duties,  rights  and  responsibilities.  This  was  averse  in 
principle  and  practice  to  the  theory  of  a  strong  government 
Avith  an  idolized  prince  at  its  head,  and  was  the  main  point 
of  difference  between  Sadducees'  and  Pharisees,  although 
many  other  points  and  observances  on  which  they  differed 
evolved  in  course  of  time.  At  this  period  this  point  of 
difference  came  to  the  surface. 

21.     Hyrcan  Turns  Sadducee. 

All  sources  agree  that  John  Hyrcan  was  an  eminent 
man  and  a  worthy  heir  of  his  ancestors'  glory  and  dignity 
(23).  Like  his  people,  he  was  intensely  pious  and  patriotic, 
so  that  posterity  ascribed  to  him  the  gift  of  prophecy 
by  the  medium  of  the  Bath-Kol  (24).  He  governed,  with 
the  Sanhedrin,  a  democratic  people,  in  strict  obedience  to 
the  laws  and  customs  of  the  nation.  Having  governed  a 
long  time  in  domestic  tranquility,  and  with  so  many  bril- 
liant successes  in  the  field,  he,  like  many  other  successful 
rulers,  felt  the  desire  of  extending  his  jjower  and  elevating 
his  personal  dignit3^  He  had  assumed  the  title  of  High- 
priest  of  the  Most  High  God  (25)  to  distinguish  him  from 
the  rulers  of  various  petty  nations  who  bore  the  title  of 
highpriests.  But  this  added  neither  to  his  power  nor  to  his 
dignity  at  home.  He  had  the  fighting  men  on  his  side, 
supported  a  corps  of  mercenary  troops,  and  could  rely  upon 
the  Sadducees,  who,  like  the  aristocracy  everywhere,  would 
support  him  in  any  attempt  of  personal  aggrandizement. 
Therefore,  an  incident,  apparently  insignificant,  sufficed  to 
change  his  domestic  policy.     After  his  victory  in  Samaria 

(22)  Meguillatii  Ta'anith  iv.;  Joseph.  Antiq.  xiii.,  xi.,  6  and 
paral.  passages  in  the  two  Talmuds. 

(23)  I.  Maccab.  xvi.  23 ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  xiii.,  xi.  7  ;  Berachoth  29  a, 
and  paral.  passages. 

(24)  Josephus,  ibid.;  Yerushalmi,  Sotah  xi.  14.  Bath-Kol 
"daughter-voice,"  is  an  inner  voice  in  the  intelligence,  produced  like 
an  echo  by  an  outer  voice  or  noise,  interpreted  by  the  recipient. 

(25)  Eosh  Htishanah,  18  b. 


152  THE    EPOCH   OF    POPULAR    GOVERNMENT. 

and  a  successful  campaign  against  the  black  inhabitants  of 
the  wilderness  (26),  Hyrcan  nivited  his  admirers  to  a  grand 
banquet.  Having  entertained  them  munificently,  and 
being  in  a  good  humor,  he  asked  them  to  tell  him  frankly 
whether  he  had  done  any  wrong.  The  Pharisees  attested 
unanimously  to  his  righteousness  and  piety.  One  of  his 
guests,  however,  whose  name  was  Eleazar  b.  Poira  (or  Je- 
huda  b.  Gedidia),  a  man  of  evil  intentions,  embraced  this 
opportunity  to  rouse  his  ire  against  the  Pharisees,  and  he 
said  that  it  was  reported  that  his  mother  had  once  been  a 
captive  among  Gentiles,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was 
not  lawfully  entitled  to  the  high  priesthood,  and  he  should, 
therefore,  resign  this  office  and  be  satisfied  with  his  secular 
power  and  dignity.  The  story  was  false,  says  Josephus ; 
Hyrcan  was  provoked  against  Eleazar,  and  the  indignation 
of  all  the  Pharisees  against  him  was  very  great.  The 
falsity  of  the  slander  being  exposed,  the  question  was  :  What 
punishment  should  be  inflicted  on  the  slanderer?  A  Sad- 
ducean  friend  of  Hyrcan,  whose  name  was  Jonathan  (27), 
embraced  this  opportunity  to  convince  him  how  inadequate 
the  penal  laws  of  the  Pharisees  were,  and  how  their  peculiar 
legislation  placed  him  on  a  level  with  any  other  man  in  Is- 
rael. Hyrcan  asked  the  i)rominent  Pharisees  why  Eleazar 
should  not  be  punished  with  death  ;  and  they  replied  :  "  He 
deserved  stripes  and  bonds,  but  it  did  not  seem  right  to 
punish  reproaches  with  death."  This  was  strictly  accord- 
ing to  Pharisaical  principle.  They  would  not  admit  that 
capital  punishment  could  be  inflicted  in  any  case  except 
where  the  Laws  of  Moses  expressly  command  it.  This  lim- 
itation of  power  and  the  accusation  made  by  Jonathan  that 
this  was  the  opinion  of  all  Parisees,  and  that  all  of  them 
wished  to  see  him  resign  the  high  priesthood,  changed  the 
mind  and  policy  of  Hyrcan.  He  abandoned  the  Pharisees 
and  embraced  the  political  principles  of  the  Sadducees. 
This  put  an  end,  for  the  time  being,  to  popular  government. 
The  Pharisees  were  driven  from  the  offices  and  out  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  and  Sadducees  appointed  in  their  place. 
Whether  any  of  the  Pharisees  were  slain  and  Joshua  b. 
Perachia,  with  his  disciple,  Juda  b.  Tabbai,  fled  to  Egypt 
with  other  prominent  Pharisees,  as  is  maintained  in  the 
Talmud,  can  not  be  established  as  an  unquestionable  fact, 
as  the  Talmud  confounds  Hyrcan  and  Alexander  Jannai. 
It  appears,  however,  from  Josephus  (28)  that  there  was  an 

(26)      Kiddashin,  66  a. 

f27)     The  Talmud  calls  him  Eleazar,  and  the  first  man  Juda  b.  Ge- 
dida.         (28)     Antiq.  xiii.,  xi.  7. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  POPULAR  GOVERNMENT.         153 

insurrection  which  had  to  be  quelled,  hence  it  must  have 
cost  lives.  It  is  certain  that  this  incident,  with  its  se- 
quences, made  an  end  of  popular  government  and  elevated 
to  power  the  Sadducees,  their  policy,  and  their  method  of 
literalism  and  rigor,  especially  in  the  penal  laws.  When 
Hyrcan  asked,  ^^llat  will  become  of  the  Thorah  if  the 
Pharisees  are  put  down?  his  friend  replied:  "Let  it  be 
rolled  up  and  placed  in  a  corner,  and  whoever  wishes  to 
learn  let  him  come  and  learn,"  i.  e.,  we  need  no  more 
laws ;  let  everybody  understand  them  to  suit  himself,  so 
also  the  prince  and  the  rulers  to  suit  themselves. 


154  THE    EPOCH    OF    ROYAL   USURPATION. 


CHAPTER    XV. 


The    Epoch,  of  Royal    Usurpation  {108  to   78  B.  C). 


1.    The  Last  Years  of  John  Hyrcan. 

Both  Josephus  and  the  Tahnud  agree  that  John  Hyrcan, 
toward  the  end  of  his  administration,  abandoned,  the  Phari- 
sees and  embraced  the  policy  of  the  Sadducees  (1).  Com- 
paring the  beginning  of  the  fifth  with  the  close  of  the  third 
paragraphs  in  Josephus,  it  appears  tliat  this  change  was 
made  shortly  after  the  victory  over  Antiochus  Cyzicenus, 
hence  in  the  winter  of  109  to  108  b.  c.  Whenever  it  was 
made,  it  was  a  step  toward  oligarchy  in  the  government  of 
the  Hebrews.  The  will  and  claims  of  the  majority  were 
subjected  to  the  interests  of  the  minority,  which  for  years 
to  come  was  a  source  of  calamity  to  the  Hebrews.  A  mili- 
tary force  was  necessary  now  to  support  the  government, 
and  Hyrcan  maintained  foreign  troops  as  all  kings  did  after 
the  example  of  Alexander  the  Great  (2).  He  introduced  the 
pernicious  policy  of  relying  upon  his  wealth,  army,  de- 
pendent officers  and  a  subservient  Sanhedrin,  instead  of 
the  will  of  his  people.  "  The  Jews  envied  Hyrcan,"  says 
Josephus,  "and  the  'Pharisees  w^ere  the  worst  disposed 
toward  him ;"  simply  because  they  were  theocratic  demo- 
crats. 

2.     The  End  of  John  Hyrcan. 

Hyrcan  had  five  sons,  Aristobul,  Antigonus,  Alexander, 
Absalom,  and  one  whose  name  is  unknown.  He  hated 
Alexander  and  had  him  educated  in  Galilee,  while  the  war- 
like Aristobul  and  Antigonus  were  his  favorites.     Before  his 


(1)  Berachoth  29  a. 

(2)  Josei>h.  Antiq.  xiii.,  viii.  4. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    EOYAL    USUEPATION.  155 

death,  it  appears,  he  repented  his  misstep  in  preferring  the 
Sadducees  to  the  Pharisees,  and  made  the  attempt  to  divide 
the  highest  power.  He  appointed  his  wife  his  successor  as 
prince  of  the  nation  and  liis  son,  Juda  Aristobul,  as  high- 
priest.  After  he  had  made  this  last  will,  John  Hyrcandied, 
in  the  autumn  of  the  year  107  b.  c,  leaving  behind  him  the 
name  of  a  great  ruler,  highpriest  and  prophet. 

3.     The  First  Asmonean  King. 

The  widow  of  John  Hyrcan  did  not  succeed  in  assuming 
the  reins  of  government.  Her  oldest  son  and  highpriest, 
Juda  Aristobul,  overpowered  her,  perhaps  before  his  father's 
will  was  made  known,  threw  her  and  three  of  her  sons  into 
prison,  and  had  himself  proclaimed  king  of  Judea,  although 
one  of  his  coins  still  extant  bears  the  plain  inscription, 
"Juda,  the  high  priest  and  unificator  of  the  Jews;"  the 
others  bear  also  the  Greek  inscription  of  "  Basileus  "  (3). 
It  was  reported  that  he  starved  his  mother  to  death  in  her 
prison,  but  this  appears  to  be  an  invention.  If  this  had 
been  true,  why  should  he  not  have  disposed  in  a  similar 
manner  of  his  brothers.  The  ancient  Hebrews  were  enemies 
of  the  royal  title  and  prerogatives,  and  had  much  to  say 
against  the  first  usurper,  Abimelech,  son  of  Gideon 
(Judges  ix.).  They  most  likely  did  the  same  to  Juda 
Aristobul.  He  kept  with  himself  his  brother  Antigonus 
only,  who  had  been  his  companion  in  arms.  He  called  him- 
self Phil-helen,  ''friend  of  the  Greeks,"  and  they  lauded 
him  particularly  as  a  man  of  candor  and  modesty. 

4.    Juda  Aristobul's  Reign. 

The  reign  of  the  first  Asmonean  monarch  was  brief 
(106  to  104  B.  c),  and  the  Hebrew  sources,  except  Josephus, 
have  preserved  no  notice  of  it.  From  the  policy  of  John 
Hyrcan  to  his  son's  usurpation,  there  was  but  one  light 
step.  He  continued  his  father's  domestic  policy  and  did 
the  same  in  the  field.  Carrying  on  a  war  with  the  Itureans 
(afterward  Trochonites)  in' the  Northeast,  he  partly  sub- 
jected them  to  his  sway.  Because  they  were  descendants 
of  Abraham  (by  Ishmael)  he  compelled  them  either  to  be 
circumcised  or  to  leave  the  country  ;  and  they  preferred  the 
former.  He  was  a  sickly  man,  and  being  obliged  to  return 
to  Jerusalem  before  the  work  was  completed,  he  left  the 
armv  in  charge  of  his  brother  Antigonus. 


(3)     M.   A.    Levy,  Juedische  Muenzen  p.  55;  Josephus'   Antiq. 
xiii.,  xii.  1. 


156  the  epoch  of  eoyal  usurpation. 

5.     The  End  of  Juda  Aristobul. 

Antigonus,  successful  in  tlie  conquest  of  Iturea,  had  hi» 
enemies  at  the  royal  court,  and  perhaps  also  m  the  secret  con- 
claves of  the  Essenes,  as  one  of  them,  whose  name  was  Juda^ 
prophesied  that  prince's  assassination  at  Strato's  Tower. 
That  city  and  Dora  having  revolted  and  established  a  gov- 
ernment of  their  own,  under  Zoilus,  it  appears  that  the  in- 
tention was  that  Antigonus  should  go  there  to  overthrow  it^ 
instead  of  which  he  came  to  Jerusalem  to  celebrate  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles,  by  the  command  of  his  jealous 
brotlier.  Having  appeared  in  the  full  splendor  of  his  arma- 
ment in  the  temple,  the  young  warrior  proceeded  to  present 
himself  before  the  king.  The  subterranean  passage  be- 
tween the  temple  and  the  Asmonean  j^alace  was  also  called 
Strato's  Tower.  There  Antigonus  was  assassinated  by  the 
king's  guard.  Aristobul  outlived  his  brother  only  a  few 
days.  The  death  of  these  two  brothers  is  shrouded  in  vays- 
tery.  The  tale  found  credence  among  the  people  that  the 
king  ordered  the  assassination  of  his  brother  in  case  he 
should  attempt  to  appear  before  him  armed.  His  messen- 
gers to  Antigonus,  summoning  him  to  his  presence,  mali- 
ciously told  him  the  contrary.  Therefore  he  was  assassi- 
nated. When  the  king  heard  it,  he  repented,  and  his  sick- 
ness became  alarming.  He  A'omited  blood.  A  servant^ 
carrying  it  away,  stumbled  w^here  Antigonus  had  been  slain 
and  the  spots  of  his  blood  still  remained.  The  king's  blood 
w^as  spilt  on  those  very  spots,  a  cry  of  horror  alarmed  the 
palace,  reached  the  ears  of  the  king,  and  lie  was  so  shocked 
that  remorse  and  agony  seized  him  violently  and  ended  his 
life.  This  appears  to  have  been  an  invention  of  the  popu- 
lar resentment  against  the  usurper. 

6.     Alexander  Jannai  Succeeds  his  Brother. 

After  the  death  of  Aristobul,  his  childless  widow,  Sa- 
lome, opened  the  prison  gates  of  the  captive  princes  and 
married  the  oldest  of  the  surviving  sons  of  John  Hyrcan,, 
as  the  Laws  of  Moses  ordain  (4).  His  name  was  Jonathan 
Alexander,  the  first  of  which  was  mispronounced  Janneus^ 
and  then  Jannai.  He  assumed  the  reins  of  government 
with  the  title  of  king,  and  then  also  of  high  priest  (5).     On 

(4)  Dent.  xxv.  5. 

(5)  Leviticus  xxi.  14.  As  highpriest  he  could  not  Tiiarry  a  widow. 
Having  betrothed  her  and  then  l)eing  made  liighpriest,  the  marriage 
is  legitimate.  ]\Iishnah,  Jebamoth  vi.  4.  The  laws  of  the  Mishnah  con- 
cerning the  king  certainly  had  no  existence  then,  as  there  was  none 
before  Aristol)uI,  and  laws  are  made  when  needed. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  ROYAL  USURPATION.  157 

his  first  coins  he  was  still  called  "  Jonathan,  the  highpriest 
and  unificator  of  the  Jews."  But  on  his  later  coins  he  is 
called  "  Jonathan,  the  king  "  (Basileus)  (6).  The  first  Avas 
a  concession  to  the  anti-royalistic  Hebrews,  which  was 
dropped  as  he  sat  more  firmly  on  his  throne. 

7.     Opening  of  the  Four  Years'  War. 

What  Antigonus,  perhaps,  was  destined  to  do,  had  he 
not  been  assassinated,  to  reduce  to  obedience  the  revolting 
seaports,  Alexander  Jannai  undertook  at  once.  He  sent 
part  of  his  army  to  Ptolemais,  and  another  against  the  cities 
of  Dora,  Strato's  Tower  and  Gaza.  He  defeated  the  army 
of  Ptolemais  and  besieged  it.  ►^yria,  still  divided,  could 
not  assist  Ptolemais,  and  Egypt,  under  Cleopatra,  was 
friendly  to  the  Hebrews.  Cleopatra  had  driven  away  her 
son,  Ptolemy  Lathyrus,  and  associated  with  herself  her  son 
Alexander.  Lathyrus  was  king  of  C^^prus.  The  Ptolemais- 
ians  applied  to  him  for  assistance,  and  he  came  to  Phoenicia 
with  a  large  army.  The  Ptolemaisians  fearing  Lathyrus 
worse  than  the  martial  Hebrews,  on  account  of  his  hostile 
mother,  did  not  receive  him  in  the  city  and  refused  his  sup- 
port. However,  Zoilus  and  the  people  of  Gaza  invited  him 
and  he  landed  his  army  there.  This  necessitated  Alexan- 
der Jannai  to  raise  the  siege  of  Ptolemais,  and  to  operate  with 
his  whole  army  against  Lathyrus.  Unable  to  overcome  him, 
Alexander  played  a  double  game  of  politics.  He  treated 
wdth  Cleopatra  to  secure  her  support  against  Lathyrus,  and 
promised  him  four  hundred  talents  for  the  person  of  Zoilus 
and  the  cities  under  his  government.  Lathyrus  was  ready 
to  do  this,  Avhen  he  learned  the  double  dealings  of  the  He- 
hrew  king,  and  broke  off  all  friendship  and  alliance  with 
him. 

8.     Disastrous  Defeat  of  the  Hebrews. 

Next  year  (104  (or  3)  b.  c),  Lathyrus  opened  a  vigorous 
campaign.  One  part  of  his  army  undertook  the  siege  of 
Ptolemais,  and  he,  with  the  main  army,  invaded  the  in- 
terior of  Palestine.  He  took  Asochis  and  Sepphoris,  in 
Galilee,  and  marched  across  the  country  to  the  banks  of 
the  Jordan.  Meanwhile  Alexander  had  raised  an  army  of  50,- 
000  men,  with  which  he  confronted  the  enemy.  A  battle 
ensued,  and  Alexander  was  defeated  with  a  loss  of  30,000 
of  his  men.  This  disaster  exposed  Palestine  to  the  mercy  of 
Lathvrus,  who  ransacked  it  and  massacred  the  inhabitants 


(6)     Levy,  Juedisclie  IMuenzen  ibid. 


158  THE  EPOCH  OF  ROYAL  USURPATION. 

most  barbarously.  The  fortified  cities  alone  saved  it  from 
utter  ruin  after  that  battle.  The  next  spring,  Cleopatra  landed 
an  army  in  Pha'nicia  under  the  command  of  her  two  Hebrew 
generals,  Chelkias  and  Ananias.  Lathyrus  quit  the  siege 
of  Ptolemais,  which  was  continued  by  xVnanias,  with  a  por- 
tion of  Cleopatra's  army,  and  the  other,  under  Chelkias, 
marched  after  Lathyrus  to  Coelosyria.  Chelkias  lost  his 
life  on  the  march.  Lathyrus  took  advantage  of  this  inci- 
dent and  marched  with  his  entire  army  to  Egypt  to  over- 
throw his  mother,  and  Alexander  gained  time  to  re-organize 
an  army,  in  which  he  was  very  slow.  Next  year,  Lathyrus 
was  defeated  in  Egypt,  and  retreated  back  to  Gaza. 

9.     A  Narrow  Escape. 

While  the  war  Avas  carried  on  in  Egypt,  Ananias  took 
Ptolemais,  and  Palestine  was  now  exposed  to  the  mercy  of 
Cleoj)atra  as  it  had  been  to  that  of  Lathyrus.  She  came  to 
Ptolemais.  Alexander  went  to  see  her  and  brought  her  rich 
presents.  He  gained  her  favor.  But  her  counselors  ad- 
vised her  to  kill  him,  to  seize  Palestine,  and  annex  it  to 
Egypt  again.  There  was,  however,  another  power  behind 
the  throne,  and  that  w^as  Ananias  and  the  Egyptian  He- 
brews, with  whose  loyalty,  influence  and  power  she  could 
not  dispense.  Ananias  admonished  the  queen  that  such 
treachery  committed  on  a  confiding  friend  would  alienate 
from  her  cause  all  the  Hebrews  in  the  world,  and  bring 
upon  her  the  condemnation  of  all  honest  men.  He  plead 
vehemently  the  cause  of  his  kinsmen,  and  succeeded. 
Alexander  returned  in  peace  to  Jerusalem.  The  same  year 
Lathyrus  went  back  to  Cyprus  and  Cleopatra  to  Egypt,  and 
Alexander  Jannai  was  king  once  more. 

10.     Conquests  of  Gaza,  Raphia  and  Anthedon. 

After  a  siege  of  ten  months  Alexander  took  Gadara,  and 
shortly  thereafter,  also  the  strongly-fortified  Amathus, 
wdiich  protected  the  frontiers  of  Coelosyria.  In  the  latter 
place  he  captured  the  treasures  of  Theodores,  prince  of 
Philadelphia.  He,  however,  surprised  Alexander  and  his 
army,  killed  ten  thousand  of  them,  retook  his  treasures, 
captured  all  of  Alexander's  baggage,  and  sent  him  back  to 
Jerusalem  in  disgrace.  Still  the  disaster  did  not  dis- 
courage him.  Lathyrus  having  returned  to  Cyprus,  Alexan- 
der went  with  his  army  to  repossess  himself  of  the  sea 
coast.  He  opened  this  campaign  by  taking  Raphia  and 
Anthedon,  southeast  of  Gaza,  which  he   then  besieged  for 


THE    EPOCH    OF    EOYAL    USURPATION.  159 

two  successive  years,  and  after  he  had  sustained  great 
losses,  he  finally  took  it  (97  b.  c.)-  His  conduct  toward  this 
city  and  its  heroic  defenders  was  barbarous.  He  took 
bloody  revenge  on  them  who  had  called  in  Lathyrus  and 
had  cost  his  army  so  many  lives.  He  left  the  city  in  ruins 
when  he  returned  to  Jerusalem.  Still  he  was  again  master 
of  the  whole  sea  coast,  and  the  revenues  derived  from  an 
extensive  traffic.  In  all  these  wars  the  people  did  not  en- 
gage as  they  did  under  the  predecessors  of  this  king.  He 
fought  his  battles  mainly  with  mercenary  troops,  many  of 
whom  were  foreign  adventurers,  officered  by  Sadducees. 
His  soldiers  lacked  the  valor  and  zeal  of  the  Maccabees, 
and  he  the  skill  and  talent  of  the  Asmoneans,  both  in  the 
field  and  in  the  cabinet.  However,  notwithstanding  all  the 
disasters,  he  was  fortunate  and  successful  in  the  main,  and 
might  have  gained  the  affections  of  his  people  if  he  had 
not  wantonly  misused  his  opportunities. 

11.     Riot  and  Revenge. 

As  long  as  the  king  and  highpriest  refrained  from  in- 
terference with  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  Pharisees, 
they  did  not  interfere  with  his  affairs,  although  the  govern- 
ment was  not  conducted,  and  the  laws  were  not  admin- 
istered, to  their  satisfaction.  They  could  stand  a  Sadducean 
government,  while  they  would  not  tolerate  a  Sadducean 
highpriest  in  the  temple.  There  were  in  the  temple  estab- 
lished customs  which  Avere  looked  upon  as  inviolable  and 
holy,  and  some  of  them  as  the  criteria  of  Pharisean 
orthodoxy.  Among  the  latter,  there  was  the  libation  of 
Avater  and  wine  upon  the  altar  during  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles, which  was  a  ceremony  of  particular  solemnity  (7). 
The  Feast  of  Tabernacles  is  the  time,  they  maintained,  when 
the  Almighty  decrees  rain  and  dew  for  the  coming  year,  to 
be  plentiful  and  seasonable  or  otherwise  (8).  This  belief 
was  old,  it  being  referred  to  by  an  ancient  prophet  (9). 
Tliis  libation,  at  least  on  the  "first  day  of  the  feast,  was 
made  by  the  highpriest  and  under  the  eyes  of  the  assem- 
bled miiltitute  of  the  pilgrims.  It  was  during  this  feast  in 
the  year  95  b.  c,  when  Alexander  Jannai  appeared  in  the 
temple  in  the  sacerdotal  robes.  At  the  solemn  moment 
when  he  had  received  the  bowl  of  water  to  be  poured  upon 
the  altar,  he  poured  it  out  at  his  feet.     This  was  sacrilege, 

(7)  MiSHNAH,  Succah  iv.  9. 

(8)  ]\IisHNAH,   Rosh  Hnshanah  i.  2. 

(9)  Zuchariah  xiv.  IG  to  19. 


160         THE  EPOCH  OF  ROYAL  USURPATION. 

it  was  an  affront  to  the  Pharisees,  and  the  indignation  of  the 
multitude  was  enkindled.  They  pelted  him  with  the 
citrons  {Ethrogim)  which  they  had  in  their  hands  (10), 
reviled  and  exasperated  him.  His  body-guard  of  mer- 
cenaries came  to  his  rescue,  and  slaughtered  in  and  about 
the  temple  no  less  than  six  thousand  men.  Ever  after  that 
melancholy  event,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  foreign  body- 
guard, and  a  partition  wall  of  wood  was  made  across  the 
inner  court  of  the  temple,  behind  which  only  the  priests 
were  permitted  to  go ;  so  that  the  people  should  never  again 
come  near  the  higbpriest  (11).  This  massacre  made  Alexan- 
der Jannai  the  most  hated  and  most  miserable  man  of  his 
people.  He  was  now  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Sadducees, 
and  his  body-guard  bore  the  deadly  hate  of  the  masses,  and 
he  was  without  a  friend.  It  appears  that  his  own  family 
was  against  him,  for  his  wife,  his  oldest  son  and  his  brother- 
in-law,  Simon  ben  Shetach,  were  uncompromising  Pharisees. 

12.     Conquest  and  Disaster  Beyond  Jordan. 

Confusion  and  civil  war  rendered  Syria  impotent.  An- 
tiochus  Gryphus  being  assassinated,  his  son,  Seleucus,  suc- 
ceeded him,  and  having  defeated  and  slain  his  uncle,  Anti- 
ochus  Cyzicenus,  reigned  over  all  Syria  until  the  son  of 
Cyzicenus,  Antiochus  Pius,  or  Eusebus,  defeated  him  and 
drove  him  out  of  Syria.  After  his  death  his  two  brothers, 
Antiochus  and  Philij),  made  war  upon  Antiochus  Pius. 
The  first  was  slain.  Philip  prevailed,  and  reigned  over  a 
p^art  of  Syria,  while  another  of  his  brothers,  Demetrius 
Eucerus,  "by  the  aid  of  Ptolemy  Lathyrus,  meanwhile 
reigned  at  Damascus.  Both  maintained  themselves  in 
power  after  the  death  of  Antiochus  Pius,  which  took  place 
shortly  afterward.  Alexander  Jannai  had  nothing  to  fear  from 
either  Syria  or  Egypt,  and  therefore  could  think  of 
new  conquests.  Having  terrified  his  people  at  home,  he 
again  crossed  the  Jordan  to  make  war  upon  the  Arabs.  The 
first  year's  campaign  (94  b.  c.)  was  eminently  successful. 
Moab  and  part  of  Gilead  were  made  tributary 'to  Palestine. 
The  second  year's  campaign  completed  the  subjection  of 
Gilead  and  ended  with  the  capture  of  Amathus,  taken  and 
lost  eight  years  before.  The  third  year's  campaign,  how- 
ever, proved  disastrous  to  the  Hebrew  king.  He  had  in- 
vaded Gaulonites,  east  of  the  lake  of  Tiberias,  where  King 


I 


(10)  Leviticus  xxiii.  10. 

(11)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xiii.,  xiv.  5 ;  Succah  48  6. 


THE    EPOCH   OF   EOYAL   USURPATION.  161 

Obedas  reigned,  and,  after  losing  the  greater  part  of  his 
army,  he  fled  back  to  Jerusalem  in  disgrace. 

13.     Six  Years  of  Civil  War. 

The  defeated  king  having  lost  also  the  victor's  prestige, 
his  enemies  among  his  own  people  rose  against  him  in  a 
fearful  rebellion,  which  lasted  six  years.  From  the  year  92 
to  89  B.  c,  the  two  parties  fought  without  any  decisive 
result  on  either  side.  Thousands  of  human  lives  were  sac- 
rificed by  the  embittered  combatants.  In  the  year  89  b.  c, 
Alexander  Jannai  earnestly  appealed  to  his  people  for 
peace,  and  offered  them  any  terms  they  could  reasonably 
demand.  They  placed  no  confidence  in  the  king's  promises, 
and  sent  him  word  that  peace  would  be  restored  whenever 
he  committed  suicide.  In  order  to  overcome  him  and  his 
party,  the  infuriated  Pharisees  summoned  to  their  aid  De- 
metrius Eucerus,  king  of  Damascus,  Avho  came  with  40,000 
infantry  and  3,000  cavalry.  Alexander  met  him  in  the 
vicinity  of  Shechem  with  6,000  mercenary  troops  and  20,000 
of  his  own  people,  and  was  routed  in  a  pitched  battle.  He 
lost  all  his  mercenary  troops  and  about  10,000  more  of  his 
men,  and  fled  with  the  rest  to  the  mountains.  Now  his  vic- 
torious enemies  either  pitied  him  or  feared  the  victorious 
king  of  Damascus,  and  6,000  of  them  joined  Alexander's 
army  in  the  mountains.  This  frightened  Demetrius  and  he 
retreated  back  to  his  own  country.  Still  Alexander  Jannai, 
fearing  a  revolt  in  the  East  also,  was  obliged  to  give  back 
Gilead  and  Moab  to  the  king  of  Arabia.  Next  year  (88 
B.  c),  Alexander  Jannai  continued  the  civil  war  with  more 
success,  although  his  enemies  were  not  discouraged  by  de- 
feat and  losses.  The  vear  after  (87  b.  c.)  he  forced  them  to 
a  pitched  battle  and  defeated  them.  The  survivors  sought 
refuge  in  the  fortified  city  of  Bethoma,  which  the  king 
closely  besieged  nearly  one  year,  and  having  taken  it,  he 
brought  eight  hundred  of  its  defenders  to  Jerusalem. 
Eight  thousand  of  the  rebels  escaped,  and  sought  refuge 
abroad.  A  catastrophe,  bloody  and  monstrous,  closed  the 
civil  war  (86  b.  c).  Alexander  gave  a  hilarious  feast  to  his 
concubines  and  courtiers  at  a  spot  outside  of  the  city, 
Avhere  those  eight  hundred  captive  Pharisees  were  crucified, 
and  while  they  were  lingering  between  life  and  death  on 
the  crosses,  their  wives  and  children  were  slaughtered  before 
their  eyes  ;  the  king  and  his  riotous  company  ate,  drank 
and  were  merry.  This  outrageous  barbarity  l^rought  Alex- 
ander Jannai  the  name  of  Thracidas,  the  Tln-acians  being 
then  considered  the  most  infamous  people.     It  was  in  the 


162  THE    EPOCH    OF    ROYAL   USURPATION. 

same  year,  when  Sylla,  with  a  Roman  army,  defeated 
Mithridates  in  Greece,  and  next  year  the  civil  war  com- 
menced in  Rome.  In  the  same  year  the  works  of  Aristotle 
were  found  and  seized  by  Sylla  at  Athens,  carried  to  Rome, 
copied  there  by  T3'rannion,  and  then  published  for  the  first 
time  by  Andronicus  Rhodius. 

14.     Conquests  in  the  Northeast. 

No  sooner  had  the  civil  war  been  brought  to  a  close  than 
Alexander  Jannai  planned  new  conquests.  He  could  not 
prevent  Antiochus  Dionysius,  the  king  of  Damascus,  suc- 
cessor to  Demetrius,  from  marching  with  his  army  through 
Palestine,  in  making  war  upon  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia. 
When  soon  after  Aretas  was  made  king  of  Coelosyria  and 
invaded  Palestine,  Alexander  lost  the  battle  of  Addida ;  but 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  made,  and  Aretas  withdrew.  And 
now  (84  B.  c.)  many  cities  in  the  East  having  revolted  dur- 
ing the  civil  war,  Alexander  again  crossed  the  Jordan  to  en- 
force his  authority;  in  this  he  was  successful.  He  then 
pressed  onward  into  the  Valley  of  Antioch,  and  within  three 
years  (from  84  to  81  b.  c.)  he  took  the  cities  of  Pella,  Dio, 
and  Gerasa,  with  the  treasures  of  Theodorus,  Golan  and 
Seleucia,  and  at  last  also  the  fortress  of  Gamala  and  several 
other  cities.  He  destroyed  Pella  because  its  inhabitants 
refused  to  embrace  Judaism.  All  the  other  cities  and  dis- 
tricts, it  appears,  were  Judaized,  and  many  cities  like 
Macherus  (Wars  vii.,  vi.  3)  were  fortified  (12).  Palestine 
now  embraced  the  land  from  the  border  of  Egypt  up  to 
Ptolemais,  where  Queen  Selen  now  governed ;  beyond 
Jordan  from  the  boundaries  of  Moab  to  the  Syrian  Desert 
np  to  the  Valley  of  Antioch,  with  an  open  caravan  route  to 
the  Euphrates ;  southward,  including  Idumea,  to  the  end 
of  the  Sinai  Desert ;  and  to  the  north  beyond  the  ancient 
Dan,  including    Gaulonites   and  Trachonites,  to  the  north- 


(12)  The  fortifications  and  citadels  built  by  Jonathan,  Simon, 
Hyrcan  and  Jannai  are  mentioned  occasionally  in  subsequent  history 
witliout  any  records  of  their  builders.  Many  of  these  fortifications 
were  on  Tar  Malka  "  Kinj^'s  Mountain,"  called  so  because  the  royal 
family  and  also  the  governing  family  preceding  it  had  their  planta- 
tion there  (Bemchoth  44:  a;  Yerushalmi,  Toanith  iv.  8.),  a  district  of 
a  thousand  towns.  It  was  near  the  Mediterranean  Sea  {Bfrdcholh, 
ibid.)  in  tlie  neighborhood  of  Caesaria  (Yerushalmi,  D^nai  II.  i.), 
including  Antipatris  (Toseputa  Ibid.  I.) ;  hence  7ur  Malka  is  not 
Mount  Ephraira  as  Graetz  maintains ;  it  is  that  chain  of  mountains 
which  runs  from  the  vicinity  of  Samaria  northeast  to  Caesaria  and 
ends  in  Mount  Carinel,  including  the  m.aritiiiie  district  between 
Joppa  and  Caesaria. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  EOYAL  USURPATION.  163 

east.  The  land  was  nearly  as  large  now  as  it  had  been  in 
the  palmy  days  of  David  and  Solomon.  During  the  king's 
absence  from  Jerusalem,  the  home  government,  conducted 
most  likely  by  the  queen  and  her  brother,  Simon  b.  Shetach, 
was  administered  with  moderation  and  prudence,  so  that 
the  king  returning  to  the  capital  (81  B.C.)  was  well  received 
b}^  the  people. 

15.     Simon  b.  Shetach  and  Alexander  Jannai. 

As  heartless  a  warrior  as  Alexander  Jannai  was  in  time 
of  war,  in  time  of  j)eace  he  led  a  riotous  life,  spending  his 
time  in  debauchery  and  excesses.  At  the  age  of  forty- 
seven  his  health  was  undermined.  He  suffered  of  quartan 
ague,  and  found  no  relief  through  his  medical  advisers. 
Therefore,  the  home  government  was  not  disturbed  by  him, 
and  Simon  b.  Shetach  succeeded  by  sagacious  arguments 
in  the  Sanhedrin  in  exposing  the  ignorance  and  incon- 
sistency of  some  of  the  Sadducean  senators,  who,  one  after 
the  other,  were  thus  compelled  to  resign,  and  to  see  their 
places  filled  by  Pharisees,  until  at  last  the  majority  of  that 
body  was  again  Pharisean  (13).  Although  Simon  b. 
Shetach  was  obliged  once  to  leave  Alexander  Jannai's  court 
(14),  perhaps  in  the  time  of  the  civil  war;  still  the  sources 
mention  no  political  difficulties  as  the  cause  thereof,  and 
his  return  to  court  was  brought  about  without  any  change 
of  policy.  Alexander  Jannai  certainly  was  the  president 
of  the  "Sanhedrin,  represented  in  this  office  by  Simon  b. 
Shetach,  who  Avas  distinguished  for  strict  and  impartial 
justice  no  less  than  for  superior  wisdom  and  learning  (15). 
He  yielded  to  the  severity  of  the  Sadduceesin  imposing 
capital  punishment,  and  ordered  the  execution  of  eighty 
women  in  one  day  in  the  city  of  Askalon  for  witchcraft  or, 
perhaps,  idolatry  (16),  although  the  Pharisean  laws  would 
not  permit  more  than  one  execution  on  the  same  day  and 
place,  or  the  hanging  of  a  woman  (17)  ;  and  refused  to  save 
his  own  son,  condemned  on  the  testimony  of  false  witnesses, 
because   it  had    been  done  according  to  the  letter  of  the 


(13)  Megillath  Taanith  x.  i  •       i 

(14)  Berachoth  48  a  and  Yermhalmi  ibid.  vH.  2,  translated  m  the 
Americnn  Israelite,  October  26,  1877.  . 

(15)  He  was  considered  a  second  Ezra,  mci"?  minn  Ttnnv  He 
restored  the  traditional  law  "  ( Kiddmhin  66  a).  The  Karaites,  there- 
fore, maintain  that  Fimon  b.  Shetach  was  a  base  impostor,  (bee 
Orach  ZaddiivIM  by  Simchah  Isaac  b.  Moses,  edit.  Vienna  1830,  18a.) 

(16)  MiSHXAH  in  S'whedrin  vi.  4. 

(17)  Ibid,  in  the  Mishnah. 


1G4  THE  EPOCH  OF  ROYAL  USURPATION. 

liiAv  (18).  He  succeeded,  however,  in  modifying  the  Saddu- 
cean  penal  code  by  abolishing  the  convicting  force  of  cir- 
cumstantial evidence,  in  cases  of  capital  crime,  without  the 
direct  testimony  of  at  least  two  witnesses  who  had  seen 
the  commission  of  the  crime  (19).  To  this,  in  all  cases 
except  murder,  there  was  added  afterward  the  necessity  of 
"  forewarning "  the  criminal  before  the  commission  of  the 
crime,  by  informing  him  of  its  magnitude  and  the  punish- 
ment threatened  by  the  law,  so  that  it  be  certain  that  the 
crime  was  committed  with  malice  and  forethought  (20). 
This  Simon  b.  Shetach  is  credited  with  two  important  re- 
forms. He  made  a  change  in  the  marriage  contract  by 
securing  thy  wife's  dowry  as  a  first  lien  upon  her  husband's 
property  ;  while  in  former  days  it  was  merely  promised  and 
not  secured ;  now  it  was  deposited  with  the  bride's  father ; 
then  it  was  deposited  with  the  bridegroom's  ftxther.  But 
all  these  customs  proving  barriers  to  marriages,  or  causes 
of  frivolous  divorces,  this  reform  was  introduced  (21).  He 
made  attendance  in  the  public  schools  compulsory  (22), 
and  was  the  first  man  recorded  in  history  as  making  such  a 
law.  All  these  reforms  must  have  been  carried  through  the 
Sanhedrin  during  the  last  six  years  of  Alexander  Jannai's 
government;  because  they  bear  the  name  of  Simon  b. 
8hetach,  who  could  not  have  been  Nassi  after  Alexander's 
death,  with  his  own  sister  as  queen.  Nor  could  they  have 
been  adopted  during  the  civil  war  on  account  of  their  Phari- 
sean  tendency.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  Simon  b.  Shetach,  be- 
fore that  period,  could,  on  account  of  his  youth,  have  been 
acknowledged  as  an  authority  either  in  "the  Sanhedrin  or 
among  the  people.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  policy 
of  conciliation  was  introduced  immediately  after  the  civil 
war. 

16.     Anecdotes  of  Simon  b.  Shetach. 

The  maxim  of  this  chief  scribe  preserved  in  the 
Mishnah  (23)  bears  evidence  that  he  was  engaged  chiefly 
in  matters  of  public  law.    He  said  :  "  Examine  the  witnesses 

(18)  Yerusiialmi  Sanhedrin  vi.  5. 

(19)  Sanhedrin  37  a;  Ibid.  Mishna  iv.  1,5. 

(20)  nxinn  Mishnah  Sanhedrin  v.  1.,  appears  to  be  of  a  later 
origin.  In  regard  to  the  witnesses  he  succeeded  in  having  established 
the  law,  tliat  in  penal  cases  no  witness  having  given  his  testimony 
once  be  ])ermitted  to  testify  again  in  the  same  case  and  court  against 
the  culprit. 

(21)  Yerushalmi,   Kethuboth  viii.    10,   and  Babli,  ibid.  82  b. 

(22)  Yerushalmi,  ibid.  ISDH  n*n^  T::i^)n  nipii'nn  VHB'I, 

(23)  Aboth  i.  9. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  ROYAL  USURPATION.  165 

thoroughly,  and  be  cautious  with  thy  words,  not  to  suggest 
falsehoods  to  them."  Therefore,  he  could  maintain  himself 
at  his  post  in  the  Sanhedrin,  although  a  Pharisee,  during 
the  reign  of  Alexander  Jannai.  One  of  his  cotemporaries 
and  colleagues  was  Onias  (^jyo  'Jin),  a  man  of  miracles, 
kiiown  to  his  cotemporaries  as  a  special  favorite  of  the 
Almighty.  When  he  prayed  for  rain,  it  did  rain,  although 
he  prayed  in  an  uncouth  manner,  which  appeared  blas- 
phemous to  the  polite  and  refined  courtier.  Simon  b. 
Shetach  sent  him  word :  "  If  thou  were  not  Onias  we 
w^ould  decree  excommunication  upon  thee.  But  what  can 
be  dune  with  thee  who  conducted  thyself  before  God  like  a 
spoiled  son  before  his  father,  who  after  all  does  his  will?" 
(24)  He  was  no  less  outspoken  and  bold  against  the 
king  who  being  called  as  a  witness  before  the  Sanhe- 
drin, because  one  of  his  servants  had  killed  a  man,  Simon 
demanded  of  the  king  to  stand  while  testifying.  He  ob- 
jected, "Not  as  thou  sayest,  but  as  these  say."  But  none 
of  the  Sanhedrin  had  the  courage  to  support  Simon,  and 
he  severely  rebuked  their  cowardice  in  violating  the  law  out 
of  fear  (25).  We  have  before  us  the  representative  of  the 
Pharisean  principle  :  "Whatever  the  political  state  may 
be,  uphold  the  law  and  it  will  uphold  society." _  Neverthe- 
less he  opposed  asceticism.  Persecution  intensifies  fhere- 
ligious  sentiment  and  produces  ascetics.  In  the  Syrian 
persecution  the  Nazarites  increased  (26),  and  that  was  the 
original  form  of  Hebrew  asceticism.  The  Pharisees  being 
persecuted  in  the  days  of  Alexander  Jannai,  the  number 
of  Nazarites  increased.  Three  hundred  of  them  came  at 
one  time  to  Jerusalem  to  fulfill  their  vows.  Simon  was 
enabled  so  to  construe  the  law  that  it  was  unnecessary 
for  one-half  of  them  to  make  the  prescribed  sacrifices,  and 
that  the  king  donated  to  them  the  three  hundred  animals 
needed  (27).  Most  likely  it  was  he  who  advanced  the 
idea  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  Nazir  was  a  trespass  offering, 
on  account  of  his  sin  in  abstaining  so  long  from  wine  and 
other  gifts  of  God.  He  said  that  he  only  once  ate  of  a 
Nazir's  sacrifice,  which  Avas  that  brought  by  a  beautiful 
youth,  who  in  sincere  devoutness  had  cut  off  his  opulent 
tresses  to  escape  worldly  allurements   (28).     He    appears 


(24)  Taanith  iii.  8. 

(25)  Sanhedrin  19  b. 

(26)  I.  Maccabees  iii.  49. 

(27)  Yeeushalmi  ,Berachoth  vii.  2,  Genesis  Eabbah  51,  and  Ecdesiasies 
Rabbah  3. 

(28)  SiPHRi  Nasa  22,  which  was  also  said  of  Simon  the  Just. 


166  THE    EPOCH    OF    ROYAL    USURPATION. 

like  a  lone  star  at  the  court  of  Alexander  Jannai.  In  re- 
gard to  the  property  of  heathens,  it  was  reported  of  him 
that  he  had  bought  an  ass  of  one,  and  found  a  costly  gem 
hidden  in  the  hair  of  the  animal.  He  returned  it  at  once, 
and  the  heathen  receiving  it  said :  "  Praised  be  the  God  of 
the  Jews  "  (29).  He  had  thus  declared  that  the  heathen's 
right  to  property  was  no  less  inviolable  than  the  Hebrews'; 
and  that  there  was  a  better  method  of  converting  heathens 
than  the  one  adopted  by  Hyrcan,  Aristobul  and  Jannai. 
Posterity  said  of  him  that  in  his  and  Queen  Alexandra's 
time,  it  rained  every  Sabbath  night ;  every  grain  of  wheat 
was  as  large  as  a  sheep's  kidney  (30) ;  so  much  was  God 
pleased  with  them. 

17.     The  End  of  Alexander  Jannai. 

In  his  sickness  also,  Jannai  preserved  his  martial  spirit. 
In  the  hope  of  overcoming  his  disease  by  exertion  and 
exercise,  he  marched  with  his  army  across  the  Jordan,  and 
conducted  the  siege  of  Ragaba.  His  wife  followed  him  and 
was  with  him  when  his  sickness  became  critical  and  he  felt 
his  end  approaching.  The  queen  wept  at  the  dying  man's 
couch,  and  bewailed  the  lot  of  her  children,  who  would  have 
no  protector  and  be  among  those  who  hated  their  father. 
The  king's  admonition  was  :  "  Be  not  afraid  of  the  Phari- 
sees, be  not  afraid  of  the  Sadducees,  be  afraid  only  of  the 
painted  ones,  who  do  the  deed  of  Simri  and  claim  the  re- 
ward of  Phineas  (Sotah  22  b) ;"  referring  to  hypocrites  and 
time-serving  politicians.  Then  he  advised  her  to  conceal 
his  death  from  the  soldiers  till  Ragaba  was  taken,  after 
which  she  should  return  in  triumph  to  Jerusalem,  and  place 
■  the  Pharisees  in  power.  "Expose  to  them  my  body,"  said 
he,  "  and  give  them  perinission  to  dishonor  it  or  even  refuse  it 
a  burial,  and  they  will  inter  it  with  the  highest  honors,  and 
thou  wilt  reign  in  safety."  He  appointed  her  queen  of  the 
realm,  and  died  in  peace,  before  *  Ragaba,  in  the  year  79 
B.  c,  fifty  years  old,  after  a  reign  of  twenty-seven  years. 
His  last  will  was  the  same  as  his  f;ither  had  made  twenty- 
nine  years  before.  Had  it  been  carried  into  effect,  it  would 
have  saved  to  the  country  a  hundred  thousand  lives  and 
avoided  the  calamities  of  a  protracted  civil  war.  It  took 
twenty-nine  years  to  discover  the  fatal  mistake  of  changing 
the  republic  into  a  kingdom  and  replacing  the  democracy 
by  an  oligarchy. 


(29)  Deuter.  RahbnhS;  Yerushalmi,  Baba  Mrzin  ii.  5. 

(30)  Leviticus  Rabbah  35 ;  also  in  Saphra  and  Talmud. 


THE   EPOCH   OF   PACIFICATION.  167 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


The   Epoch  of  Pacification. 


1,     Queen  Salome  Alexandra. 

The  reign  of  a  queen  over  the  Hebrews  was  a  new  fea- 
ture in  their  history.  Altliougli  woman's  position  in  the  an- 
cient Hebrew  State  was  fully  equal  to  that  of  the  man  (1), 
still  no  woman  had  reigned  or  occupied  a  very  prominent 
position  in  the  Hebrews'  Second  Commonwealth.  There 
loomed  up  from  gray  antiquity  the  classical  figures  of  Mir- 
iam and  Deborah,  counterpoised,  however,  by  the  records 
of  Bath  Sheba,  Athalia  and  Jezebel.  Jephtah's  daughter, 
Kuth,  Hannah  and  Abigail,  who,  like  the  poet's  Sulamith, 
are  lovely  personifications  of  sublime  virtues  without  direct 
influence  on  the  nation's  political  affairs.  A  queen  upon 
the  Asmonean  throne  was  a  novelty.  Queen  Salome  (Ni'j3^t»>) 
was  nearly  sixty-four  years  old  at  her  husband's  death, 
when  she  assumed  the  name  of  Alexandra.  Only  two  of 
her  sons  are  known.  Hyrcan  and  Aristobul.  Her  genealogy 
is  unknown,  and  besides  her  brother  Simon  b.  Shetach,  none 
of  her  relatives  are  mentioned. 


(1)  She  was  dispensed  from  complying  with  such  commandatory 
laws  of  the  Bible,  which  depend  on  a  iflxed  time ;  from  appearing  as  a 
Avitness  before  any  criminal  court,  and  as  long  as  married,  from  paying 
any  damages,  if  she  wounded  a  man  or  destroyed  any  property.  She 
could  hold  property  in  her  own  name,  and  dispose  of  it  without  her 
husband's  consent,  if  she  acquired  it  after  her  marriage  by  inheritance 
or  otherwise;  while  her  dowry  and  the  husband's  additions  made 
thereto,  remained  a  first  lien  upon  his  property.  She  was  not  expressly 
enfranchised,  but  there  existed  no  law  to  debar  her  from  holding  public 
offices,  although  the  customs  of  the  country  and  the  prevailing  con- 
ceptions of  chastity  would  not  pei'mit  it. 


168  THE    EPOCH   OF   PACIFICATION. 

2.      HyRCAN   II.    HiGHPRIEST. 

Alexandra  did  exactly  as  her  deceased  husband  had 
ordered.  Ragaba  was  taken,  and  the  soldiers  returned  in 
triumph  to  Jerusalem  without  any  knowledge  of  the  king's 
death.  She  assembled  the  heads  of  the  Pharisees,  put  in 
their  charge  the  government  and  her  husband's  dead  body. 
This  had  the  predicted  effect.  Those  leaders  persuaded  the 
people  that  the  deceased  monarch  was  a  righteous  man,  and 
all  his  wickedness  was  forgiven  and  forgotten.  "  So  he  had 
a  funeral  more  splendid  than  any  of  the  kings  before  him  " 
(Josephus),  and  Alexandra  Avas  safely  enthroned  in  Jeru- 
salem. She  appointed  her  oldest  son,  Hyrcan  II.,  high- 
priest,  and  it  was  an  excellent  choice,  because  he  was  a 
man  of  peace,  less  passionate,  ambitious  and  warlike  than 
his  Asmonean  ancestors  ;  and  this  was  the  Pharisean  ideal 
of  a  highpriest  (Aboth  i.  12). 

3.     The  New  Sanhedrin. 

The  political  prisoners  were  released  and  the  fugitives 
returned  from  foreign  lands.  Among  the  latter  was  also 
Juda  b.  Tabbai,  the  disciple  of  Joshua  b.  Perachia,  who,  it 
is  reported,  had  gone  with  his  teacher  to  Alexandria.  The 
Pharisean  heads  assembled  in  Jerusalem,  appointed  him 
Nassi,  and  sent  him  a  written  summons  to  Alexandria, 
upon  which  he  returned  to  Jerusalem  and  accepted  the 
presidency  of  the  Sanhedrin,  with  Simon  b.  Shetach  as 
chief-justice  and  vice-president  (2).  All  this,  of  course,  was 
done  with  the  sanction  of  the  queen. 

4.    The  Work  Done  by  this  Sanhedrin. 

The  first  work  done  by  this  Sanhedrin  was  the  repeal  of 
the  penal  code  and  all  laws  of  the  Sadducees  based  upon 
literalism.  They  had  established  a  code  of  capital  punish- 
ments, which  they  could  not  support  by  biblical  arguments. 
They  enforced  literally,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  etc.,  all 
of  which  were  repealed,  and  the  day  when  this  was  accom- 
})lished,  the  14th  day  of  Tamuz,  was  made  a  national  holi- 
day (3).  The  entire  penal  law,  as  preserved  in  the  Mish- 
nah  and  elsewhere,  in  undisputed  paragraphs,  was  either, 
re-introduced  from  former  traditions  or  enacted  by  this 
Sanhedrin,  with  the  proviso  that  the  laws   should  not  be 

(2)  MisHNAH,  Aboth  i.  8,  9,  and  Chagigah  ii.  2;  Yerushalmi  Cha- 
gigah  ii.  2. 

(3)  Megillath  Taanith  iv. 


THE    EPOCH    OF   PACIFICATION.  IGO* 

written  in  books,  in  order  not  to  assume  equal  importance 
with  the  Laws  of  Moses.  The  written  law  being  tauglit 
and  read  in  the  synagogues  and  schools  by  the  Scribes  from 
manuscripts,  was  called  xipjo  or  x"ip  ,  "  The  Reading ;"  and 
the  traditional  law  being  taught  orally  and  repeated  by  the 
students,  was  called  xn-Jno  or  n3B>0,  "  The  Repeated  Matter." 
In  regard  to  capital  punishment,  the  main  principles  were  : 

1.  The  penalty  of  death  can  not  be  imposed  except  in 
cases  expressly  stated  in  the  Laws  of  Moses,  to  be  pun- 
ished with  death  (4). 

2.  This  highest  penalty  could  not  be  imposed  except 
by  order  of  a  regular  court  of  twenty-three,  called  "  The 
Lesser  Sanhedrin  " — with  the  exception  of  a  few  cases  re- 
served for  "  The  Great  Sanhedrin  " — established  and  ac- 
knowledged as  such  by  the  latter  body,  and  only  after  the 
regular  procedure  prescribed  by  law  (5). 

3.  The  modus  of  the  procedure  to  be  direct  and  verbal 
accusation  before  that  court,  and  not  by  inquisition,  except 
in  case  of  manslaughter  (6). 

4.  The  evidence  must  be  based  on  direct  testimony  and 
supported  by  circumstantial  evidence,  and,  except  in  the 
case  of  manslaughter,  the  commission  of  the  criminal  deed 
must  have  been  preceded  by  a  "  forewarning  "  (7). 

5.  The  penalty  to  be  imposed  on  false  witnesses  to  be 
the  same  as  their  testimony,  if  true,  would  have  brought  on 
the  culprit. 

6.  The  pleading  for  the  defense  may  be  done  by  any  of 
the  members  of  the  Sanhedrin  in  session,  or  any  authorized 
assessor,  or  the  culprit  himself  and  at  least  one  of  the 
court.  The  pleading  for  the  accusation  must  be  done  by 
one  of  the  sitting  judges,  the  day  after  the  defense  has 
closed  its  plea  (8). 

7.  A  plain  majority  of  the  judges,  in  their  final  vote, 
may  acquit  the  culprit ;  the  verdict  of  guilty  must  be  pro- 
nounced by  a  majority  of  at  least  two,  to  be  valid  (9). 

This  Sanhedrin  also  established  the  rights,  privileges  and 
duties  of  the  great  and  lesser  Sanhedrin ;  the  laws  of 
social  and  domestic  relations  and  protection ;  the  laws  of 
property ;  and  many  ritual  laws,  as  preserved  in  the  para- 


(4)  SiPHRi  Shophefim  154 ;  Yerushalmi  Sanhedrin  vii.  3. 

(5)  MiSHXAir  Sanhedrin  i.  4,  5. 

(6)  Ibid  iii.  6  and  Deuter.  xxi.  9. 

(7)  MisHNAH  Sanhedrin  iv.  and  v. 

(8)  Jbid.  V.  4. 

(9)  Ibid.  V.  5. 


170  THE    EPOCH   OF   PACIFICATION. 

graphs  of  the  Mishnah  (10).  Tlie  Sadducean  customs  in 
the  temple  were  abolished  and  the  Pharisean  introduced 
(11).  Laws  of  Levitical  cleanness,  in  which  the  parties  dis- 
agreed, were  established  by  senatorial  enactment  (12).  Of 
the  particular  laws  made  and  enforced  n'^pn^  bv  p!?^  N'Vini? 
*'  to  counteract  the  opinions  of  the  Sadducees,"  one  is  re- 
corded which  is  characteristic  of  Juda  b.  Tabbai's  tenden- 
cies and  character.  He  ruled  to  impose  capital  punishment 
on  one  false  witness  out  of  two,  who  had  testified  against  a- 
man  accused  of  homicide,  in  order  to  counteract  a  law  of 
the  Sadducees,  who  maintained  that  false  witnesses  should 
not  be  put  to  death  unless  the  culprit  had  been  executed  in 
consequence  of  their  false  testimony.  Simon  b.  Shetach 
maintained  that  his  colleague  had  shed  innocent  blood ;  be- 
cause the  sages  before  them  had  established  the  law  that 
false  witnesses  are  not  punished  as  the  Laws  of  Moses  pre- 
scribes, unless  both  of  them  have  given  false  testimony. 
This  was  the  cause  that  Juda  b.  Tabbai  after  that  never  de- 
cided an  important  case  except  in  presence  of  Simon  b. 
Shetach;  and  that  he  often  sat  upon  the  grave  of  the 
executed  man  and  cried  painfully  on  account  of  his  fatal 
error  {Hagigah  16  b). 

5.     The  Reign  of  Queen  Alexandra. 

The  nine  years  of  Queen  Alexandra's  reign  were  a  period 
of  blessing  to  the  Hebrews.  There  was  peace,  although 
she  maintained  two  standing  armies.  No  enemy  crossed 
the  borders.  She  held  hostages  from  the  petty  nations 
around  Palestine,  who  dreaded  her  power  and  popularity. 
The  Pharisees  who  governed  the  country  for  her,  gave  her 

(10)  The  main  laws  of  these  categories  appeared  finished  and 
established  to  the  sages  of  a  later  period,  also  in  the  controversies  of 
the  Hillehtes  and  Sliamraaites. 

(11)  Graetz  A^ol.  III.  Note  9,  B,  counts  seven  particular  points  in 
this  connection,  of  which  the  most  important  are  that  the  Sadducees 
maintained  that  the  daily  sacrifices  were  to  be  made  from  the  dona- 
tions of  private  individuals,  and  the  Pharisees  maintained  that  they 
must  be  from  the  public  funds;  the  former  held  Pentecost  must  be 
celebrated  on  the  seventh  Sabbath  after  the  one  in  the  Passover  feast, 
and  the  latter  maintained  that  it  nmst  be  celebrated  on  the  fiftieth 
day  after  the  first  day  of  Passover. 

(12)  Mishnah,  Jedaim  iii.  5  and  iv.  6,  7,  8.   Most  remarkable  is  the 

riDirifS  ''i'D  bv  TiTJ,  in  Yerushalmi,  Kelhuhoth  viii.  10  and  Babli,  Sah- 
balh  15  h,  viz.,  that  metallic  vessels  of  capacity  having  became  Leviti- 
cally  unclean,  if  broken  and  recast,  are  unclean  again.  This  question 
was  so  decided  to  Queen  Salome,  perhaps  in  order  to  discourage  the 
use  of  golden  and  silver  vessels. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    PACIFICATION  171 

considerable  trouble  by  prosecuting  and  bringing  to  punish- 
ment those  of  the  Sadducean  leaders  who  were  concerned 
in  the  persecution  and  bloodshed  under  the  reign  of  her 
husband,  and  especially  those  who  counseled  the  king  to 
crucify  the  eight  hundred  prisoners  of  Bethome.  Diogenes, 
and  several  more  of  those  men,  had  been  slain  already.  A 
deputation  of  Sadducees,  headed  by  the  queen's  second  son, 
Aristobul,  came  to  the  queen  and  begged  protection.  Most . 
■of  the  Sadducees  having  been  Jannai's  soldiers  and  civili 
■officers,  the  queen  committed  all  the  fortresses,  except 
three,  to  their  care,  where  they  were  well  protected  against 
violence,  and  most  likely  the  legal  prosecutions  were  dis- 
continued. She  retained  the  fortresses  of  Hyrcania,  Alex- 
.andrium  and  Macherus,  where  her  principal  treasures  were. 
This  arrangement  secured  domestic  peace,  and  afforded  the 
leading  men  the  opportunity  to  restore  respect  for  the  law. 

6.     Capture  of  Damascus. 

At  Chalcis,  a  country  at  the  foot  of  the  Lebanon,  Ptol- 
■emy  was  prince.  He  was  a  vexatious  neighbor,  and  the 
queen  resolved  upon  suppressing  him.  She  sent  her  army, 
under  command  of  Aristobul,  to  the  north.  He  captured 
Damascus  (71  b.  c),  but  made  no  further  use  of  that  vic- 
tory. It  was  his  object  to  gain  the  affections  of  the  army, 
and  having  succeeded  in  this,  he  returned  to  Jerusalem  to 
watch  his  chances. 

7.     TiGRANES  Before  Ptolemais. 

The  Syrians,  tired  of  the  civil  war  and  their  native 
princes,  who  waged  it,  offered  the  crown  to  Tigranes,  king 
of  Armenia,  who  came  into  Syria  (83  b.  c.)  and  made  an 
end  of  the  Seleucidan  dynasty.  He  took  possession  of  the 
whole  country  except  Ptolemais,  where  Queen  Selen  main- 
tained dominion.  Gradually  she  succeeded  in  adding  sev- 
eral other  cities  to  her  kingdom.  In  the  year  70  b.  c, 
Tigranes  came  to  Syria,  governed  by  his  lieutenant,  and 
besieged  Ptolemais.  Queen  Alexandra  sent  embassadors 
and  presents  to  Tigranes  and  they  were  well  received ;  per- 
haps, because  he  had  no  time  to  spare,  the  Romans  having 
invaded  his  country,  and  the  peace  of  Palestine  was  not 
■disturbed. 

8.     Death  of  Alexandra. 

Soon  after  this,  however,  Alexandra,  being  seventy-three 
years  old,  became  very  ill,  and  her  recovery  appeared  improb- 


172  THE    EPOCH    OF    PACIFICATION. 

able.  Aristobul  traveled  rapidly  from  one  fortress  to  the- 
other  to  win  the  Sadducees  in  his  favor.  He  was  eminently 
successful,  and  the  rulers  in  Jerusalem  were  alarmed.  They 
took  the  wife  and  children  of  Aristobul  and  held  them  as 
hostages  in  the  castle  Baris.  The  members  of  the  Sanhedrin^ 
headed  by  the  highpriest,  came  to  the  queen,  and  asked 
her  decision  as  to  who  should  be  king  after  her.  She  dele- 
gated this  power  to  the  Sanhedrin,  not  wishing  to  disturb 
herself  any  more  with  worldly  affairs,  and  died  in  peace. 
The  country  had  been  well  pacified,  but  this  uncertainty  as 
to  the  succession  precipitated  it  again  into  confusion,  which 
ended  with  the  loss  of  independence.  All  that  is  left  now 
of  that  excellent  woman  is  her  place  in  history  and  a  few 
coins  extant  bearing  the  inscription  of  "  Queen  Alexandra.'^ 


THE  brothers'  FEUD  AND  FOREIGN  INTERVENTION.       173 


CHAPTER  XVil. 


The  Brothers'  Feud  and  Foreign  Intervention. 


1.     State  of  the  Country. 

Salome  Alexandra  left  Palestine  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion. It  extended  from  Macherus  to  Damascus,  and  from  the 
walls  of  Ptolemais  to  Rhinocolura  on  the  boundaries  of 
Egypt,  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  The  public 
treasury  was  filled,  and  the  army  Avell  organized  (1).  The 
temple  was  the  center  of  piety  for  the  Hebrews  of  all  coun- 
tries where  they  dwelt  as  Avell  as  in  Palestine,  and  its  treas- 
ury was  replenished  not  only  by  the  half-shekel  tax,  but 
by  the  gifts  sent  from  foreign  lands  in  great  abundance  (2). 
The  people  were  law-abiding,  profoundly  religious,  and,  in 
consequence  of  their  religion  and  literature,  highly  intelligent, 
industrious  and  frugal.  There  were  public  schools,  acade- 
mies and  synagogues  in  every  town  all  over  the  land.  The 
poor,  the  needy,  the  orphan,  the  widow,  the  stranger,  were 
protected  and  supported  as  the  Laws  of  Moses  ordain.  All 
were  equal  before  God  and  the  law,  none  stood  above  or  be- 
yond it.  The  ethical  principles  of  the  nation  were  purer, 
loftier  and  broader  than  those  of  anv  other.  As  the  temple 
on  Mount  Moriah  stood  alone  among  all  the  temples  of  the 
world,  a  monument  of  Monotheism  and  pure  humanity,  so 
was  Palestine  a  lone  oasis  among  the  countries  and  moral 
corruption  of  the  Gentiles.  Had  that  people  been  un- 
molested, it  would  have  solved  the  highest  problems  of 
civilization,  long  before  the  European  nations  thought  of 
them.  But  as  one  hundred  years  before  that  time  the 
aristocracv   of    Jerusalem  had    brouafht    miserv   on    their 


(1)  Josephus' Antiquities  xiii.,  xiv.  5. 

(2)  Shekalim  in  Tosefta  II.  and  Talmud  6  a  ;  Antiq.  xiv.,  vii.  2. 


174      THE  brothers'  FUED  AND  FOREIGN  INTERVENTION. 

country,    so   they  did   again   after  the    death    of    Salome 
Alexandra. 

2.     Hyrcan  and  Aristobul. 

After  the  death  of  Alexandra,  her  eldest  son  and  high- 
priest,  Hyrcan,  was  crowned  as  her  successor  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  Sanhedrin  and  the  Pharisean  part3^  His 
brother  Aristobul,  however,  with  the  Sadducees  on  his  side, 
protested  against  the  succession,  and  soon  came  at  the  head 
of  an  army  to  enforce  his  own  claims.  Hyrcan,  with  his 
army,  marched  out  to  meet  him  on  the  plains  of  Jericho. 
The  hatred  and  fanaticism  between  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
had  subsided,  and  a  martial  spirit  predominated.  Aris- 
tobul was  a  soldier  and  Hyrcan  was  none ;  so  many  of  his 
men  went  over  to  Aristobul.  Hyrcan  venturing  a  battle 
nevertheless  was  defeated,  fled  to  .Jerusalem,  locked  himself 
up  in  Castle  Baris,andwas  besieged  by  his  brother.  Hyrcan 
being  a  good,  peaceable  man  and  averse  to  bloodshed,  offered 
his  resignation  to  his  brother,  which  was  at  once  accepted. 
Both  brothers  met  in  the  temple,  Aristobul  received  the 
crown  and  high  priesthood,  they  swore  solemn  oaths  of 
peace  and  friendship,  embraced  each  other  in  the  presence 
of  the  assembled  multitude,  and  then  Hyrcan  retired  into' 
private  life,  and  Aristobul  II.  assumed  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment. 

3.    The  Reign  of  Aristobul  II. — Shemaiah  and 

Abtalion. 

Six  years  and  six  months,  from  69  to  63  b.  c,  Aristobul 
II.  reigned  over  the  Hebrews.  His  government  was  un- 
popular, as  the  sequel  will  show.  The  priests  and  the  mili- 
tary chiefs,  it  appears,  were  his  only  friends ;  although 
nothing  of  importance  against  the  will  or  interests  of  the 
people  was  done  by  him  except,  that  he  Avas  accused  by  his 
enemies  of  violence  and  disorder,  and  especially  of  incur- 
sions made  into  neighboring  countries  and  piracies  com- 
mitted at  sea  (3),  which  may  have  brought  upon  him  popu- 
lar indignation.  It  is  certain  that  the  democratic  feeling 
spread  rapidly  under  his  reign  (4),  and  the  Asmonean  name 
lost  prestige  among  the  multitude.  The  Sanhedrin  was 
Pharisean  and  democratic.  After  the  demise  of  Juda  b. 
Tabbai  and  Simon  b.  Shetach,  it  was  presided  over  by  She- 
maiah and  Abtalion,  called  by  Josephus  Sameas  and  Polion 

(3)  Josephus'  Antiquities  xi v.,  ill.  2. 

(4)  Ibid. 


THE    brothers'   FUED   AND   FOREIGN    INTERVENTION.       175 

(5),  who  were  believed  to  be  descendants  of  proselytes.  An 
anecdote  preserved  in  the  Talmud  goes  far  to  show  the  un- 
popularity of  Aristobul.  The  Day  of  Atonement  was  very 
solemnly  observed  in  the  temple.  The  highpriest,  after 
seven  days'  seclusion  and  preparation,  presided  in  person 
and  performed  all  the  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  Law. 
After  the  last  sacrifice  of  the  day  had  been  made,  he  went 
from  the  temple  to  his  residence  followed  by  a  stately  pro- 
cession of  senators,  priests,  state  officers  and  other  promi- 
nent people ;  and  he  gave  a  great  feast  to  his  friends, 
because  he  had  entered  the  sanctum  sanctorum  and 
returned  from  it  without  an  accident.  Closing  one  Day  of 
Atonement,  Aristobul  left  the  temple,  and  so  did  the  heads 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion.  The  people 
left  the  highpriest  and  followed  the  heads  of  the  Sanhedrin. 
The  highpriest  felt  offended,  and  said  to  the  parting  heads 
of  the  Sanhedrin :  "  Farewell  to  the  sons  of  Gentiles." 
They  replied,  however :  "  The  sons  of  Gentiles  who  do  as 
Aaron  did  may  fare  well;  but  the  sons  of  Aaron,  who  do 
not  like  Aaron,  may  not  fare  well."  (Yoma  71  h.)  Accord- 
ing to  another  anecdote  preserved  in  the  Talmud,  Aristobul 
made  himself  obnoxious  also  to  the  students,  by  imposing 
upon  them  a  tax  which  had  to  be  paid  daily  to  the  door- 
keeper by  every  one  on  entering  the  academy  (6). 

4.     The  Intrigues  of  Antipater. 

The  most  intriguing  and  unscrui)ulous  enemy  of  Aris- 
tobul was  his  brother's  confident,  an  Idumean,  whose  name 
was  Antipater.  He  had  been  governor  of  Idumea  under 
Alexandra,  and  had  lost  his  office  under  Aristobul.  He 
stirred  up  the  most  influential  men  of  the  nation  against 
Aristobul,  whom  he  stigmatized  as  an  usurper,  and  advocated 
the  restoration  of  Hyrcan  to  the  throne.  Hyrcan  was  too 
kind  and  indolent  to  listen  to  Antipater's  treacherous 
schemes,  although  he  told  him  repeatedly  that  his  life 
was  in  danger,  as  Aristobul's  friends  advised  him  to  slay 
Hyrcan.  However,  Antipater  repeated  his  terrifying  story 
to  the  timid  Hyrcan  so  often  and  so  solemnly  that  he 
began  to  believe  it,  and  Hyrcan  consented  to  flee  from 
Jerusalem  to  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia,  Avho  had  his  residence 
at  Petra,  provided  that  that  king  should  promise  him  pro- 

(5)  Ibid,  xiv.,  ix.  4 ;  also  xiv.,  xv.  1,  and  xv.,  x.  4,  only  that  in  the 
two  latter  eases  he  pnta  the  disriple  of  Abtalion,  whose  name  was 
Shammai,  in  the  placp  oi  the  older  Shemaiah. 

(6)  Joma  35  b  ':i  JpTH  7pn  py  IION- 


176    THE  brothers'  fued  and  foreign  intervention. 

tection  against  his  brother.  Antipater  went  stealthily  to  Pe- 
tra,  negotiated  with  Aretas,  who  promised  protection  to  Hyr- 
can.  .In  the  early  part  of  the  year  65  b.  c,  Hyrcan  followed 
Antipater  at  night,  out  of  Jerusalem,  and  both  of  them 
arrived  safely  at  Petra. 

5.     The  Brothers'  War. 

Hyrcan,  now  entirely  in  the  power  of  Antipater  and 
Aretas,  was  too  pliable  to  resist  the  treachery  of  his  friend. 
Antipater  persuaded  Aretas  to  invade  Judea  to  restore  the 
throne  to  Hyrcan,  and  promised  him  the  twelve  cities  on 
the  southeastern  border  which  Alexander  Jannai  had 
taken  from  the  Arabs,  besides  other  valuable  presents. 
Aretas  invaded  Judea  with  an  army  of  50,000  men  to  en- 
throne Hyrcan,  who  was  with  the  army.  In  the  first  battle 
Aristobul  was  defeated,  many  of  his  men  deserted  and 
joined  the  ranks  of  Hyrcan.  Aristobul  fled  to  Jerusalem, 
the  enemy  followed  him.  He  sought  refuge  behind  the 
strong  walls  of  the  Temple  Mount ;  the  assault  made  upon 
it  Avas  repulsed,  and  a  protracted  siege  followed,  Aristobul 
within  the  temple  inclosure  and  Hyrcan,  with  Aretas,  Avith- 
out,  in  possession  of  the  cit}'  of  Jerusalem.  Some  of  the 
principal  citizens  left  the  country  and  fled  to  Egypt. 

6.     Brutalities  Committed. 

Superstition  and  brutality  almost  always  go  together. 
The  troops  besieging  the  temple  proved  this.  Onias  (pn 
N2njn)  grandson  of  the  one  mentioned  in  the  fifteenth  chap- 
ter (7)  who  also  was  believed  to  have  moved  heaven  by  his 
prayer  for  rain  in  a  time  of  drought,  was  the  man  now  in 
demand  by  those  warriors.  They  believed  that  if  he  would 
curse  the  besieged  garrison  it  would  speedily  perish.  They 
sent  for  the  saint.  He  hid  himself,  but  Avas  discovered  and 
brought  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  soldiers  commanded  him  to 
curse  the  besieged  garrison.  The  man,  it  appears,  Avas 
neither  an  impostor  nor  a  fanatic.  He  prayed  :  "  0  God, 
king  of  the  Avhole  Avorld  !  since  those  Avho  stand  now  Avith  me 


(7)  Taanifh  23  a  and  b.  The  family  of  this  Onias,  he  and  his  two 
grandsons,  Abba  Helkiah  and  Onias  the  Hidden,  were  noted  for 
working  miracles  by  prayer.  Wlien  rain  was  needed,  they  prayed, 
and  it  came.  The  grandfather  Avas  an  older  cotemporary  of  Simon  b. 
Shetach.  The  grandson  mentioned  on  this  occasion  was  called 
Hani'chhn  "the  Hidden,"  for  which  Josephus  gives  one  reason  and 
the  Talmud  another.  Tliis  story  here  refers  not  to  the  grandfather 
Onias,  for  if  he  had  been  slain  he  would  not  have  become  the  hero  of 
the  legend,  according  to  which  he  slept  seventy  years. 


THE    brothers'   FUED   AND   FOREIGN   INTERVENTION.      177 

are  thy  people,  and  those  that  are  besieged  are  also  thy  priests, 
I  beseech  thee  that  thou  will  neither  hearken  to  the  prayers 
of  those  against  these,  nor  bring  to  effect  what  these  pray 
against  those."  These  words  of  peace  and  good  will  so  ex- 
asperated the  fanatical  warriors  that  they  assassinated  the 
defenseless  man.  Another  barbarity  committed  by  those 
rude  men  was  the  following :  The  Feast  of  Passover  ap- 
proached, and  those  in  the  temple  had  no  animals  with  which 
to  make  the  prescribed  sacrifices.  The}^  promised  to  the 
besieged  as  much  money  as  should  be  asked  for  the  re- 
quired animals.  They  agreed,  the  money  was  sent,  and  the 
animals  were  not  delivered.  This  impiety  and  breach  of 
promise,  like  the  death  of  Onias,  brought  down  upon 
Hyrcan's  friends  the  indignation  of  the  people,  so  that 
Aristobul  soon  found  better  support.  A  hurricane  swept 
over  the  whole  country  and  destroyed  the  ripening  cereals, 
and  a  modius  of  wheat  was  sold  for  eleven  drachmas.  This, 
■of  course,  was  looked  upon  as  a  just  punishment  for  the 
harbarities  committed.     (Antiq.  xiv.,  ii.  1  and  2.) 

7.     Roman  Interference. 

But  another  plague  was  soon  to  come  worse  than  any 
endured  before,  and  that  was  the  interference  of  Roman 
usurpers,  who  succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  Roman  re- 
public and  the  independence  of  Palestine.  In  the  year  66 
B.  c.  Pompey  was  sent  to  the  East  to  supersede  Lucullus  in 
the  command  of  the  Roman  army  operating  against 
Tigranes  and  Mithridates.  Meeting  with  decided  success 
east  and  northeast  of  Palestine  (65  b.  c),  Syria  was  made  a 
Roman  province.  Scaurus  reduced  Coelosja-ia  and  Da- 
mascus, and  Gabinius,  the  eastern  portion  of  that  country 
as  far  as  the  Tigris.  Scaurus,  under  Pompey,  was  the 
Roman  commander,  whose  army  was  encamped  nearest  to 
Palestine.  Therefore,  both  Aristobul  and  Hyrcan  sent  am- 
bassadors to  him  at  Damascus,  praying  for  his  support. 
Aristobul  sent  a  bribe  of  four  hundred  talents  (8)  to  the 
greedy  Roman  and  three  hundred  to  Gabinius,  and  thereby 
gained  their  favor.  Scaurus  sent  imperative  orders  to 
Aretas  to  raise  the  siege  at  once.  Had  those  petty  kings 
had  the  good  sense  to  form  a  coalition  and  present  a  united 
front  against  Scaurus,  history  would  have  taken  another 
turn.  But  they  lacked  both  patriotism  and  foresight. 
Aretas  raised  the  siege  and  marched  homeward  with 
Hyrcan  and  Antipater  and  the  small  body  of  Hebrews  sup- 

(8)     Compare  Josephns'  Antiquities  xiv.,  ii.  3  and  Wars  i.,  iv.  3. 


178     THE  brothers'  feud  and  foreign  intervention. 

porting  them.  Aristobul,  with  his  men,  pursued  them,  his 
cause  was  espoused  by  many  of  the  people  who  augmented 
his  force,  to  cliastise  a  barbarous  enemy,  and  he  defeated 
the  retreating  army  with  great  shiughter  at  Papyron. 
Among  the  slain  there  was  also  Phalion,  the  brother  of 
Antipater.  Hyrcan  remained  in  possession  of  a  few  cities 
on  the  southern  line,  and  Aristobul  was  again  master  of 
the  situation. 

8.     PoMPEY  Annuls  the  Treaties, 

Shortly  after  Pompey  came  into  Damascus,  Aristobul 
sent  him  the  vine  of  gold,  worth  four  hundred  talents^ 
which  had  ornamented  the  temple  gate.  This  vine  was 
afterward  deposited  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter,  at  the  capitol 
in  Rome.  Pious  Hebrews  replaced  it  in  the  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem under  the  reign  of  Herod  (9).  Pompey,  being  other- 
Avise  engaged,  left  Syria,  and  a  year  of  peace  followed. 
In  64  B.  c,  he  returned  to  Coelosyria.  Antipater,  in  behalf 
of  Hyrcan,  and  Nicodemus,  in  behalf  of  Aristobul,  appeared 
before  the  mighty  Roman  to  plead  the  cause  of  their  re- 
spective lords.  Pompey  heard  their  arguments,  dismissed 
them  with  ambiguous  promises,  and  ordered  the  two  kings 
to  appear  in  person  before  him.  So  another  year  of  peace 
was  secured,  Pompey  being  still  engaged  in  his  war  against 
Mithridates.  Meanwhile,  Aretas  invaded  Syria  with  de- 
cided success,  Mithridates  died  on  his  Avay  to  invade  Italy, 
and  Pompey,  in  63  b.  c,  came  to  Damascus,  with  the  deter- 
mination of  invading  Arabia.  He  took  Petra  and  King 
Aretas,  and  then  returned  to  Damascus,  where  both  Aristo- 
bul and  Hyrcan  appeared  before  him  to  plead  each  his  own 
cause.  There  appeared  also  representatives  of  the  Hebrew 
people,  who  protested  against  both  the  pretenders  and  the 
monarchical  form  of  government.  In  behalf  of  the  nation, 
they  demanded  that  their  democratic  theocracy  be  restored. 
But  the  Roman  chief  before  whom  they  stood  was  the  enemy 
of  his  own  republic,  and  was  even  then  prepared  to  usurp 
the  highest  powers  of  State  at  home ;  he  hardly  gave  the 
representatives  of  the  people  a  hearing,  the  less  so  since 
they  had  come  without  gifts  or  bribes.  He  listened  only 
to  the  pleas  of  the  two  hostile  brothers.  They  were  no  lon- 
ger the  people's  choice.  Once,  in  a  similar  critical  moment, 
Jonathan  appeared  at  Ptolomais,  accompanied  by  the  most 
prominent  elders  and  priests.  Now  Hyrcan  appeared  with 
an  intriguing  politician,  Antipater,  to  plead  his  cause  ;  and 

(9)     MisHNAH,  3Iiddothi\l  8;  Joseph.  Antiquities  xv.,  xi.  3. 


THE  brothers'  PUED  AND  FOREIGN  INTERVENTION,         179 

Aristobul  was  surrounded  b}'  a  number  of  young  and  inso- 
lent fellows,  clad  in  purple  garments  and  decked  with 
jewels.  There  was  no  Asmonean  majesty  in  the  appear- 
ance of  either.  The  representative  of  Aristobul,  a  year 
before  this,  had  provoked  the  ire  of  Pompey  by  charging  his 
subordinates,  Scaurus  and  Gabinius,  with  the  crime  of 
having  been  bribed,  and  Pompey  himself  never  refused  a 
bribe.  Now,  Hyrcan  had  brought  him  rich  gifts,  and 
Antipater  was  moje  submissive  and  pliable  than  Aristobul, 
whose  violent  temper  afforded  a  good  pretext  for  his  re- 
moval, especially  as  Hyrcan,  by  the  right  of  primogeniture, 
was  tlie  legitimate  king  of  Judea.  Aside,  however,  from  all 
these  considerations,  Pompey  had  the  ambition  of  carrying 
the  Roman  standards  clear  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  any  pretext 
sufficed  him  to  annul  all  the  treaties  of  Rome  and  Pales- 
tine, to  break  the  solemn  promises  and  pledges  of  former 
days,  and  to  add  one  more  country  to  his  conquests. 
Honor,  integrity  and  liberty  were  no  longer  the  motives  of 
Roman  commanders.  Selfishness  and  a  boundless  greedi- 
ness of  power  and  wealth  had  overcome  all  other  consider- 
ations. Human  lives  and  human  rights  had  become  equally 
worthless  in  their  estimation.  Therefore,  Pompey,  having 
heard  the  pleas  of  the  two  brothers,  dismissed  them  with 
ambiguous  words,  promised  to  settle  their  dispute  by  the 
by,  led  each  of  them  to  believe  that  he  was  the  favored 
man,  and  made  preparations  for  the  instantaneous  invasion 
of  Judea.  Aristobul's  conduct  was  the  next  pretext ;  for 
he  had  concentrated  some  troops  at  Delius  and  marched 
into  Judea.  Pompey,  with  his  legions,  followed  him  at 
once,  marched  through  Galilee  and  Samaria  without  any 
resistance,  and  reached  Corea,  at  the  northern  frontier  of 
Judea  proper ;  and  there,  in  the  fortress  of  Alexandrium, 
Aristobul  was  ready  to  dispute  his  progress. 

9.     Pompey  in  Jerusalem. 

By  false  promises,  Aristobul  was  brought  out  of  Alex- 
andrium  and  persuaded  to  surrender  it  to  Pompey.  Aristo- 
bul retired  to  Jerusalem  and  prepared  for  war,  and  Pompey 
led  his  legions  to  Jericho.  Aristobul,  not  certain  of  his 
people's  support,  repaired  to  Pompey  as  a  penitent,  prom- 
ised him  money  and  to  receive  him  into  the  city  of  Jerusa- 
lem if  he  would  do  in  peace  all  he  wished  to  do.  He  con- 
sented, sent  Gabinius,  with  a  force,  to  take  possession  of 
the  money  and  the  city;  but  the  people  closed  the  gates  of 
Jerusalem  against  both  Gabinius  and  Aristobul,  who  was 
now  cast  into  prison  by  his  disappointed  and  treacherous 


180    THE  brothers'  fued  and  foreign  intervention. 

protector.  Pompey  sent  Piso,  with  an  adequate  force,  to 
Jerusalem.  An  insurrection  broke  out  in  the  city.  The 
people,  not  caring  much  about  the  quarrel,  resolved  to  re- 
ceive Pompey 's  men  and  treat  them  hospitably,  which  the 
friends  of  Aristobul  refused  to  accede  to,  because  he  was  a 
prisoner.  At  last  the  Aristobulites  gained  possession  of 
the  temple,  broke  down  the  bridges  and  prepared  for  a 
siege ;  and  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  opened  the  gates  to  (] 
Piso,  received  and  treated  him  well.  He  took  possession  of 
the  royal  palace,  fortified  the  houses  near  the  temple,  and 
garrisoned  all  important  points.  He  offered  terms  of  peace 
to  the  besieged,  which  were  refused.  Then  he  commenced 
the  construction  of  a  wall  to  shut  them  up,  in  which 
Hyrcan  assisted  him,  while  Pompey  came  up  with  the 
main  force  and  took  his  position  north  of  the  temple,  where 
it  was  most  vulnerable. 

10.     Capture  of  the  Temple. 

Three  months  the  defenders  of  the  temple  defied  the 
entire  army  of  Pompey  supported  by  Hyrcan  and  his 
friends,  although  they  were  provided  with  the  best  siege 
engines.  A  deep  ditch  which  they  had  cut  north  of  the 
temple  protected  it  against  the  siege  engines.  This  ditch, 
Josephus  tells  us,  was  filled  up  on  the  Sabbath  days,  when 
those  inside  the  temple  walls  would  not  disturb  the  work, 
holding,  as  they  did,  to  the  Sabbath  law  established  by  Mat- 
tathia,  which  the  Pharisees  afterward  abolished.  Gradually 
the  ditch  was  filled  up,  an  embankment  Avas  raised,  the 
engines  placed  in  position,  one  of  the  two  northern  towers 
was  battered  down,  a  breech  was  made  into  the  wall,  and  on 
a  Sabbath  day  the  Romans  poured  in,  a  terrible  carnage 
ensued,  twelve  thousand  Israelites  lost  their  lives,  Absalom, 
the  uncle  of  Aristobul,  was  taken  captive,  and  the  temple, 
covered  with  the  dead  bodies  of  its  defenders,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Pompey.  The  officiating  priests,  notwithstanding 
the  carnage  around  them,  remained  steadfast  at  their  re- 
spective posts,  and  performed  their  duties  in  the  face  of 
death,  until  their  services  were  finished  or  they  were  dead. 

11.     The  Temple  Service  Uninterrupted. 

Pompe}'  and  his  men  went  over  the  temple  in  all  its 
apartments  without  regard  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the 
Hebrews;  and  this  sacrilege  was  deeply  regretted  by  his 
friends.  Still  he  pleased  them  in  another  way.  He  took 
none  of  the  numerous  golden   vessels,   the    costly   spices, 


THE   brothers'   FUED   AND   FOREIGN   INTERVENTION.      181 

or  the  vvo  thousand  talents  left  in  the  treasiir}^  of  the 
temple.  He  appointed  Hyrcan  highpriest.  Next  day  the 
temple  was  cleansed  and  the  services  continued  as  hereto- 
fore. The  priests  and  Levites  who  had  escaped  the 
slaughter  were  most  likely  few  in  number,  and  the  slain 
were  many ;  but  Hyrcan  II.  went  over  their  bodies,  and  Avas 
again  highpriest. 

12.     The  Loss  of  Independence. 

After  the  friends  of  Aristobul  had  been  slaughtered, 
sent  as  captives  to  Rome,  or  had  left  the  country,  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem  and  other  cities  had  been  demolished,  the  sea- 
shore cities  and  also  the  inland  cities,  taken  by  Alexander 
Jannai,  had  been  made  free  cities  and  added  to  the  Syrian 
province,  and  Judea  reduced  to  its  own  limits,  Antipater 
was  appointed  Roman  procurator  under  the  pro-consul  of 
Syria,  and  Hyrcan  was  appointed  Etlmarch  or  Prince  of 
Judea,  without  the  right  of  wearing  the  diadem,  and  an 
annual  tribute  was  imposed  on  the  conquered  land,  in  vio- 
lation of  all  existing  treaties,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
Pompey  only  conquered  a  small  faction  and  one  fortified 
point.  Jerusalem  had  lost  its  independence,  and  Rome  its 
integrity  and  honor.  Antipater  was  a  Roman  servant  and 
Hyrcan  the  shadow  of  a  prince.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
the  end.     Two  hundred  years  of  combat  followed. 

13.    The  Hebrews  in  Rome, 

Aristobul,  his  son  Antigonus,  his  two  daughters,  and 
his  uncle,  Absalom,  like  many  other  captives,  were  brought 
to  Rome  to  grace  the  triumph  of  Pompey.  Alexander,  a 
son  of  Aristobul,  escaped  and  returned  to  Palestine,  where 
his  mother  also  was.  A  large  number  of  Hebrew  captives 
were  brought  to  Rome  and  set  free  by  their  wealthy  co- 
religionists, who  had  established  themselves  in  Rome  long 
before  the  time  of  Pompey.  The  ransomed  captives  were 
called  lihertines,  settled  on  an  island  of  the  Tiber,  also  on 
the  left  bank  of  that  river,  and  upon  the  declivity  of  the 
Vatican.  Being  Roman  citizens  they  soon  made  themselves 
felt  among  the  multitude,  especially  as  merchants, 
mechanics,  soothsayers  and  the  representatives  of  a 
religion,  which  had  reached  the  most  intelligent  Romans  by 
the  Greco-Hebrew  literature.  One  only  of  their  prominent 
teachers,  whose  name  was  Theodoras,  has  become  known  to 
posterity.  Although  the  Hebrews  had  established  them- 
selves  all   over   Italy,  still   they  were  most  numerous  in 


182     THE  brothers'  feud  and  foreign  intervention. 

Rome.  Four  years  later  L.  Valerius  Flaccus  was  placed 
before  liis  judges  in  Rome,  by  Laelius,  for  the  oppression, 
robbery  and  violence  practiced  in  his  province  in  Asia,  and 
one  of  the  charges  was  that  Flaccus  stole  the  money  which 
the  Hebrews  had  collected  for  the  temple  in  Jerusalem. 
Cicero  was  the  advocate  of  Flaccus  and  was  obliged  to  de- 
base the  Greeks  and  Jews  in  behalf  of  his  client.  He 
characterized  the  Greeks  as  faithless  and  unreliable,  and 
the  Jews  as  superstitious  and  seditious.  We  learn  from 
this  oration  (10)  that  the  Hebrews  were  numerous,  united, 
and  exercised  a  considerable  influence  in  the  public 
meetings,  disliked  the  Romans,  their  laws  and  their  power, 
etc. ;  but  he  never  calls  tliem  faithless,  immoral  or  unen- 
lightened ;  because  they  were  certainly  the  equals,  if  not  the 
superiors,  of  the  Romans  in  all  these  points  as  well  as  in 
bravery. 


CIO)    Oratio  pro  Flacc.  Sees,  iv.,  v.  and  xviii. 


y.    Palestine  Under  Roman  Yassal  Rulers. 


While  the  Roman  Republic  was  shaken  to  its  foundations  by  its 
matricidal  sons,  its  power  was  extended  over  Europe  to  the  Isles 
of  Britain,  over  Egypt  and  Western  Asia.  The  whole  civilized 
world  quaked  under  the  footsteps  of  the  Roman  soldiery.  The 
rights  and  liberties  of  nations  were  extinguished,  and  their  re- 
ligions superseded  by  the  Greco- Roman  idolatry  and  the  worship 
of  the  emperor,  as  the  son  of  God.  Under  the  influence  of  con- 
quest and  military  despotism,  the  Roman  virtues  gave  way  to 
moral  corruption  in  its  worst  form.  The  highest  officers,  with 
rare  exceptions,  were  sensual,  ambitious,  selfish,  cruel  and  un- 
scrupulous men.  Their  greed  of  power,  wealth  and  sensual 
'gratification  were  boundless.  A  haughtiness  bordering  on  self- 
deification  caused  them  to  despise  every  person,  thought  or  insti- 
tution not  in  harmony  with  their  prejudices  and  perverted 
conceptions  of  honor  and  religion.  The  governing  class  was  sup- 
ported by  an  army  of  automatons,  recruited  mostly  among 
semi-barbarous  nations  and  the  lowest  scum  of  civilized  people, 
whose  highest  virtue  was  blind  obedience.  The  governed  class 
groaned  helplessly  under  the  towers  of  corruption,  and  the  world 
appeared  to  have  been  given  over  to  Roman  soldiers.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  in  Rome,  Latin  literature  reached  its  golden 
age,  although  her  patricians  were  obliged  to  go  to  school  to  the 
Greeks,  and  Athens  became  the  alma  mater.  And  yet  Rome  became 
the  reservoir  to  receive  the  various  brooks  of  ancient  cultures,  to 
send  forth  the  broad  stream  of  modern  civilization .  How  did 
the  Hebrews  resist  that  crushing  power,  and  how  were  they 
aflfected?  What  did  they  learn  of  the  Romans  and  the  Romans 
of  them?  In  the  succeeding  chapters  we  will  answer  these 
questions.  The  period  before  us  is  called  Palestine  under  Roman 
vassal  rulers,  because  the  Hebrews  maintained  their  independ- 
ence in  domestic  affairs,  while  their  rulers  were  vassals  of  Rome. 
It  is  divided  into  three  ages : 


184  THE    LAST    OF    THE    ASMONEAN    RULERS. 

1.  The  Last  of  the  Asmonean  Rulers  (63  to  36  B.  c.)' 

2.  King  Herod,  the  Idumean  (37  to  3  b.  c.)t. 

3.  Archelaus  and  the  end  (3  b.  c.  to  7  a.  c.)t. 


CHAPTER  XVIIJ. 


The  Last  of  the  Asmonean  Rulers. 


1 


1.     Hyrcan  II.,  Antipater,  and  their  Antagonists. 

Upon  the  throne  of  Judea,  there  now  sat  (63  b.  c.)  a 
prince  without  a  diadem,  governing  a  land  without  an 
army,  and  witli  a  minister  who  was  his  superior  in  power 
and  mind.  Hyrcan  II.  was  highpriest  and  ethnarch,  who, 
witli  the  Sanhedrin,  could  administer  the  domestic  affairs 
of  the  Hebrews  in  Judea,  as  long  as  he  paid  the  stipulated 
tribute  to  the  Romans.  His  minister  and  friend,  Antipater, 
was  the  Roman  agent,  the  military  governor  of  the  land. 
Although  he  apparently  did  everything  by  command  of 
Hyrcan,  and  in  his  interest ;  yet  Hyrcan  commanded  that 
only  which  Antipater  demanded.  The  policy  of  those  two 
rulers  was  to  be  faithful  to  Rome,  and  to  bear  gracefully 
the  foreign  yoke.  It  was  prudent,  perhaps  the  best  policy 
under  the  circumstances ;  yet  large  numbers  of  the  people 
were  not  willing  to  submit  to  the  wrong  perpetrated  by 
Pompey,  and  to  give  up  the  independence  of  their  country. 
This  class  of  dissatisfied  patriots,  irrespective  of  old  party 
divisions  and  new  geographical  lines,  was  headed  for  the 
next  twenty-seven  years  by  the  dethroned  Aristobul  II.  and 
his  two  sons,  Alexander  and  Antigonus. 

2.     Scaurus  Invades  Arabia. 

Pompey  left  behind  him  Scaurus  as  the  commander  of 
the  Roman  troops.  He  had  orders  to  invade  Arabia  and 
chastise  Aretas.  Antipater  gave  him  permission  to  march 
through  Judea,  and  furnished  the  army  with  provisions. 
But    Aretas  being   the  friend  of  Antipater,  the  latter  was^ 

*Josephus'  Antiquitips  xiv  ,  xvi.  4. 

tJosephus' Wars  I  xxxiii.  8. 

J  Compare  Antiquities  xvii.,  xiii.  2  and  Wars  II.  tU.  S. 


THE    LAST    OF   THE    ASMO^•EAX    RULERS.  185 

used  as  a  mediator  by  Scaurus.  While  the  Romans  pillaged 
the  country,  Antipater  prevailed  on  Aretas  to  sue  for  peace, 
and  he  did  so.  He  promised  Scaurus  three  hundred  talents, 
for  which  Antipater  became  surety.  Scaurus  left  the 
country,  went  back  to  Rome,  was  elected  Aedile,  and  a  coin 
eternized  his  victory  over  the  king  of  Arabia,  although  it 
had  been  obtained  by  diplomacy.  The  successors  of 
Scaurus  in  Syria  were  jNIarcus  Philippus  and  Marcellinus 
Lentulus,  who  were  defeated  ))y  the  Parthians,  and  then 
replaced  by  Gabinius,  whom  Cicero  called  a  most  infamous 
extortioner. 

3.     Alexander's  First   Exploit. 

;^^eanwhile  the  dissatisfied  patriots  were  quiet,  although 
always  ready  to  strike  against  the  Roman  i)arty  when  an 
opportunity  offered,  as  was  the  case  when  the  Parthians  had 
defeated  the  two  Roman  commanders  and  were  ready  to 
invade  S3'ria.  Alexander,  the  oldest  son  of  Aristobul,  who 
was  about  ten  years  old  when,  in  63  b.  c,  he  escaped  and 
came  back  to  Palestine,  was  now  the  only  Asmonean  scion 
in  the  country  about  whom  the  patriots  could  rally.  His 
mother,  as  well  as  his  father,  Avas  an  Asmonean.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  Absalom,  now  a  captive  in  Rome.  How  or 
when  the  patriots  organized  has  remained  a  mystery.  It 
appears,  that  on  the  line  of  Arabia  beyond  Jordan, 
this  party  had  fortified  Alexandrium,  Hyrcanium  and 
Macherus,  and  there  was  the  center  for  that  party.  In  the 
year  57  b.  c,  with  Alexander  at  their  head,  tliey  made  an 
incursion  into  Judea,  and  succeeded  in  taking  Jerusalem  (1). 
They  Avould  have  fortified  it,  if  Gabinius  and  Marc  Antony 
had  not  come  in  time  to  the  rescue  of  Hyrcan.  He  had 
brought  together  a  small  force  under  Antipater,  Pitholaus. 
and  Malichus,  opposed  by  Alexander  with  ten  thousand 
infantry  and  fifteen  hundred  cavalry.  Alexander  was  de- 
feated with  the  loss  of  half  his  army,  and  the  rest  retreated 
across  the  Jordan  behind  the  walls  of  Alexandrium.  Marc 
Antony  besieged  this  fortress,  and  Gabinius  fortified  the 
cities  inhaluted  by  Gentiles,  which  were  to  hold  the  He- 
brews in  check,  as  in  the  time  of  the  Syrians,  and  then  he 
came  with  his  forces  to  Alexandrium.  'Before  an  assault 
was  made,  the  mother  of  Alexander,  who  stood  in  high 
esteem  with  the  Roman,  succeeded  in  obtaining  amnesty 
for  her  son  and  his  men.  after  he  had  capitulated  and  the 
three  fortresses  were  demolished.  Shortly  after  Alexander 
married  his  cousin,  Alexandra,  the  daughter  of  Hyrcan. 

(1)    Josephus'  Wars  I.  viii.  3,  4  ;  Antiquities  xiv.  v. 


186  the  last  of  the  asmonean  rulers. 

4.     Partition  of  the  Country. 

Gabinius  again  installed  Hyrcan  II.  in  his  office  of 
highpriest,  but  not  as  etbnarcli.  His  power  was  altogether 
spiritual.  In  order  to  deprive  the  Asmoneans  of  all  hope 
of  restoration,  he  divided  the  country  into  live  districts, 
and  placed  in  each  an  executive  council  independent  of  the 
others.  The  five  capital  cities  were  Jerusalem,  Jericho, 
Sepphoris,  Gadara  and  Amatheus,  which  included  all  four 
provinces  of  Judea,  Samaria,  Galilee  and  Petrea.  This  was' 
intended  to  satisfy  the  democrats,  but  it  did  not,  and  had 
certainly  no  practical  consequences,  and  despite  of  them 
the  people  of  Israel  remained  a  unit,  and  the  rianhedrin  in 
Jerusalem  was  the  supreme  judiciary  and  legislature,  the 
expounders  of  the  Law  and  the  bearers  of  the  traditions ; 
and  few,  if  any,  had  yet  accepted  the  behef  that  the  high- 
priest  was  not  the  lawful  sovereign.  All  these  were  rehgious 
beliefs  deeply  rooted  in  the  consciences  of  the  multitudes, 
and  a  mere  geographical  division  could  not  change  them. 

5.    Aristobul's  Abortive  Exploit. 

Gabinius,  believing  all  matters  in  Judea  to  be  settled, 
went  with  his  army  to  Egypt.  Scarcely  had  he  gone,  when 
Aristobul,  with  his  son  Antigonus,  having  escaped  from 
Rome,  appeared  in  Judea,  and  called  his  compatriots  to 
arms.  The  democratic  element,  it  appears,  gave  him  no 
support ;  for  although  Pitholaus,  one  of  Hyrcan's  principal 
<3hiefs,  came  to  him  with  one  thousand  men,  he  could  not 
get  together  more  than  eight  thousand  men,  nor  had  he 
the  means  to  arm  a  greater  number.  He  had  come  too 
late,  after  his  son  Alexander  had  been  vanquished  and  the 
fortresses  demolished.  He  succeeded  in  taking  possession 
of  Alexandrium  and  refortifying  it,  and  then  made  the  at- 
tempt of  regaining  Macherus.  But  on  his  way  there  he  was 
overtaken  by  the  Roman  force  under  Marc  Antony  and  the 
son  of  Gabinius,  and  lost  in  a  battle  five  thousand  of  his 
men.  And  yet  with  the  shattered  fragments  of  his  little 
army,  Aristobul  succeeded  in  reaching  Macherus,  and  began 
to  fortify  it.  When  the  Romans  overtook  him,  he  fought 
them  desperately,  until  he  was  severely  wounded  and 
•captured,  together  with  his  son  Antigonus.  They  Avere 
sent  back  to  Rome.  Gabinius  having  informed  the  senate 
that  he  liad  promised  to  the  mother  the  liberty  of  her  two 
sons,  Antigonus,  who  was  (56  b.  c.)  a  mere  boy.  was  sent 
back  to  Palestine,  and  Aristobul  remained  a  prisoner  in 
Rome. 


the  last  of  the  asmonean  eulers.  187 

6.    Alexander's  Second  Exploit. 

Gabinius  marched  with  his  troops  to  the  East  to  attack 
the  Parthians.  Meanwhile  Ptolemy  Auletes,  King  of  Egypt, 
was  dethroned.  He  jiromised  Gabinius  a  large  sum  of 
money,  and  the  avaricious  Roman  turned  round  to  invade 
Egypt.  Antipater  furnished  him  men  and  provisions,  and 
won  in  his  favor  the  Hebrews  below  Pelusium  who  held  the 
passes  near  the  Isthmus.  Alexander  improved  the  oppor- 
tunity and  (55  b.  c.)  called  the  patriots  once  more  to 
arms.  He  was  more  successful  this  time.  A  large  army 
came  to  his  banners.  He  slew  and  drove  out  the  Romans 
and  their  compatriots  in  Galilee,  and  followed  them  to 
-Mount  Gerizzim,  where  they  had  intrenched  them- 
selves. Antipater  was  helpless.  Gabinius  returned 
from  Egypt.  He  sent  Antipater  as  a  messenger  of 
peace  to  the  army  of  Alexander.  By  arguments  and 
threats  he  succeeded  in  pacifying  many.  Still  Alexan- 
der had  left  thirty  thousand  men  to  espouse  his  cause,  and 
lie  ventured  a  pitched  battle  with  the  Romans  near  Mt. 
Tabor.  He  was  too  young  a  man  to  successfully  handle  an 
army  of  thirty  thousand  men  against  Roman  veterans. 
The  battle  was  lost,  ten  thousand  of  his  men  perished,  and 
he  fled  mto_  the  mountains,  where,  it  appears,  he  main- 
tained himself  as  the  ruler  of  a  portion  of  Galilee  to  the 
year  48  b.  c.  Now  peace  was  restored,  Antipater  was  again 
master  of  the  situation,  and  the  friends  of  Aristobul  were 
terrified.  The  same  year  Gabinius  was  recalled  to  Rome, 
was  tried  for  his  crimes  and  extortions,  found  guilty,  and 
banished. 

7.    The  Temple  Ransacked  by  Crassus. 

Marcus  Lucinius  Crassus,  the  triumvir  with  Pompey  and 
€8esar,  the  wealthiest  citizen  of  Rome,  was  the  successor 
of  Gabinius  in  the  province  of  Syria.  His  apparent  object 
was  to  continue  the  war  against  the  Parthians ;  but  his 
actual  aim  was  to  gather  as  much  wealth  as  could  be 
found.  He  plundered  towns  and  temples,  and  came  also  to 
Jerusalem.  His  object  being  known,  the  treasurer  of  the 
temple,  Eleazar,  came  to  him  with  the  request  not  to  dis- 
turb the  temple,  and  promised  him  a  piece  of  gold,  which 
none  besides  him  could  find,  weighing  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds.  Crassus  consented,  and  swore  an  oath  not  to 
disturb  the  sanctuary.  The  gold  was  delivered  to  him,  he 
took  it,  and  then  entered  the  temple,  took  two  thousand 
talents  from  its  treasury  and  vessels  to  the  value  of  eight 


188  THE   LAST    OF   THE   ASMONEAN    RULERS. 

thousand  talents,  left  the  temple  stripped  of  all  its  wealth 
and  vessels,  and  left  the  city,  in  all  probability,  before  its 
inhabitants  knew  what  had  been  done.  Then  he  marched 
against  the  Parthians,  who  slew  him  like  a  mad  dog,  and 
annihilated  his  army,  of  which  Cassius,  his  quaestor,  with 
five  hundred  cavalry  escaped  into  Syria  (53  b.  c). 

8.     The  Extortions  and  Outrages  op  Cassius, 

Cassius  Longinus  collected  the  fugitives  from  the  army 
of  Crassus  in  Syria  and  made  preparations  to  receive  the 
Parthians.  He  stood  in  need  of  money  and  extorted  it 
from  the  various  nations,  also  from  the  Hebrews.  Having 
repulsed  the  Parthians,  he  came  to  Tyre,  and  went  across 
Galilee  to  put  down  the  friends  of  Aristobul.  Pitholaus,. 
with  his  men,  held  the  city  of  Taricha-a,  on  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Tiberias.  Cassius  took  the  city,  carried  all 
its  inhabitants  and  defenders  (30,000)  into  slavery,  and,  at 
the  request  of  Antipater,  slew  Pitholaus,  because  he  had  be- 
trayed the  cause  of  Hyrcan  (52  b.  c).  Still  this  did  not 
bring  the  friends  of  Aristobul  to  terms  ;  Alexander  held  his 
position,  and  must  have  lived  in  peace  with  his  wife,  the 
daughter  of  Hyrcan,  who,  prior  to  48  b.  c,  gave  birth  to 
his  two  children,  Mariamne  and  her  brother,  Aristobul, 
whose  tragic  end  disgraces  the  history  of  Herod.  We  have 
to  look  upon  Galilee  as  in  a  continual  state  of  insurrection, 
kept  up  by  Alexander  and  other  friends  of  Aristobul.  Still 
there  was  no  particular  disturbance  from  52  to  48  b.  c,  be- 
cause neither  were  the  Romans  nor  was  Antipater  in  a  posi- 
tion to  do  anything  effectual  with  those  warlike  mount- 
aineers. 

9.    JuLuis  C./ESAR  Changes  the  Situation. 

While  the  Roman  legions  were  defeated  by  the  Parthians 
Julius  Caesar  overthrew  the  independence  of  the  various  na- 
tionalities at  the  western  end  of  Europe,  from  the  Rhine  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  Belgium  and  Britannia  included.  In  Rome 
Pompey  was  all  mighty,  and  he  was  no  less  hated  there  than 
in  Palestine.  After  the  death  of  Crassus  he  had  but  one 
rival,  and  that  was  Julius  Csesar.  He  was  the  expected 
savior  of  the  Romans.  When  he  had  accomplished  it,  he 
was  deified  by  his  admirers,  and  the  god  Caesar  was  the 
precursor  of  the  god  Jesus.  In  December,  50  b.  c.  CaBsar 
crossed  the  Rubicon  and  arrived  in  Rome.  Pompey,  with 
his  warriors,  fled  across  the  Adriatic  Sea  to  Epirus.  Cajsar 
reduced  all  Italy,  so  that  he  was  in  possession  of  the 
■western,  and    Pompey  of  the  eastern  half  of  the   Romaa 


THE    LAST   OF   THE    ASMONEAX    RULERS.  189 

Empire.     So  the  year  49  b.  c.  passed  in  making  prepara- 
tions. 

10.     The  End  of  Aristobul  II. 

Caesar  undoing  in  Rome  all  the  measures  of  Pompey, 
released  Aristobul  II.  from  his  prison,  gave  him  two 
legions,  and  sent  him  back  to  Palestine  to  take  possession 
of  his  kingdom.  Had  this  expedition  been  successful,  it 
would  have  restored  the  power  if  not  the  independence  of 
the  Hebrew's,  and  outflanked  Pompey  in  his  rear.  But  it 
was  not  successful.  Partisans  of  Pompey  found  means  to 
poison  Aristobul,  and  he  died  a  sudden  death.  His  body 
was  preserved  in  honey,  till  several  years  afterward,  when 
Marc  Antony  sent  it  to  Jerusalem  to  be  buried  in  the 
sepulcher  of  his  fathers. 

11.     The  End  of  Alexander. 

The  news  of  Aristobul's  change  of  fortune  reaching 
Palestine,  Alexander  was  ready  to  initiate  the  campaign 
against  the  forces  of  Pompey.  Q.  Metellus  Scipio,  the 
father-in-law  of  Pompey,  had  succeeded  Bibulus  as  Presi- 
dent of  Syria,  and  he  overpowered  Alexander,  captured 
him,  brought  him  to  Antioch,  and  there,  by  order  of 
Pompey,  he  was  beheaded  {48  b.  c). 

12.     The  Family  of  Aristobul. 

The  wdfe,  two  daughters,  and  one  son  (Antigon)  of 
Aristobul  II.  resided  at  Ascalon,  hitherto  protected  by  the 
promise  of  Gabinius.  But  when  Alexander  had  been 
slain  in  spite  of  that  promise,  they  were  no  longer  secure 
in  Palestine.  Ptolemy,  the  Prince  of  Chalcis,  took  the 
family  to  his  residence,  and  his  son  Philip  married  Alex- 
andra, one  of  Aristobul's  daughters.  Afterward  Ptolemy 
fell  in  love  with  her,  slew  his  owm  son,  and  married  her. 
This  event  secured  a  place  of  refuge  to  the  entire  family. 

13.     C^sAR  IN  Egypt. 

49  b.  c.  Csesar  w^ts  declared  dictator,  but  resigned  after 
eleven  days,  and  was  elected  consul  48  b.  c.  He  defeated 
Pompey  at  Pharsalia  in  Thessaly,  who  soon  after  was 
assassinated  in  Egypt  before  the  arrival  of  Csesar  at  Alex- 
andria in  pursuit  of  his  dead  eneni}-.  When  the  news  of 
Pompey's  death  had  reached  Rome,  Csesar  was  again 
appointed  dictator.     Still  he  was  in  a  precarious  condition 


190  THE    LAST   OF   THE    ASMONEAN    RULERS. 

in  Alexandria,  where  he  had  come  with  but  8200  infantry 
and  800  cuvahy,  and  there  enraged  the  people  against  liini 
by  rigorously  exacting  the  payment  of  a  heavy  debt,  and 
treating  like  a  superior  the  two  oldest  children  of  the 
king,  Ptolemy  and  Cleopatra,  who  were  making  war  on  one 
another  about  the  succession.  When  at  last  he  embraced 
the  cause  of  the  unchaste  Cleopatra,  the  Egyptians  made  a 
fierce  attack  upon  him,  drove  him  into  a  i)erilous  position, 
and  it  was  only  with  the  utmost  difficulty  and  heroism  that 
he  maintained  himself  until  reinforcements  came  from 
abroad. 

14.    Antipater  Assists  Cjesar. 

Among  those  Avho  came  to  reinforce  Ca3sar,  there  was 
also  Mithridates,  of  Pergamus,  who  had  arrived  with  his 
forces  at  Ascalon,  but  was  unable  to  force  his  way  into 
Egypt.  Antipater  came  to  him  with  three  thousand  He- 
brews and  a  number  of  Arabians,  followed  also  by  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Syrians.  At  Pelusium  Antipater,  with 
his  men,  were  the  first  to  break  through  the  walls,  and  the 
city  was  taken.  The  Egyptian  Hebrews  of  the  Onias  dis- 
trict were  ready  to  stop  Mithridates ;  but  when  Antipater 
showed  them  letters  from  Hyrcan  exhorting  them  to  cultivate 
the  friendship  of  Csesar,  they  fraternized  with  him  and 
followed  the  host  of  Mithridates.  By  the  same  means  the 
Hebrews  of  Memphis  also  came  over  to  Caesar's  friends,  and 
enabled  the  army  to  press  on  toAvard  Alexandria.  Near  the 
Nile,  at  a  place  called  the  Jewish  Camp,  the  Egyptian  forces 
under  Ptolemy  were  encountered.  A  battle  ensued,  in 
which  Mithridates,  commanding  the  right  Aving,  Avas  pressed 
back,  and  Avould  have  been  routed,  if  Antipater,  command- 
ing the  left  Aving,  had  not  defeated  the  enemy  and  come  in 
time  to  support  Mithridates.  MeauAvhile  C»sar  had  been 
reinforced  Avith  a  legion  Avhich  came  from  Asia  Minor  by 
sea,  and  effected  a  junction  Avith  the  forces  of  Mithridates 
and  Antipater,  and  Hyrcan  had  also  come  there  Avith  1500 
men  (2).  The  Egyptians  Avere  completel}^  overthroAvn. 
Ptolemy  lost  his  life  in  the  Nile,  Cleopatra  Avas  married  to 
her  second  brother,  who  was  thirteen  years  old,  and  was 
made  Queen  of  Egypt  Avith  her  brother  as  nominal  king. 
The  friendship  of  Hyrcan,  the  heroic  conduct  of  Antipater, 
the  Avounds  he  had  receiA^ed  in  Caesar's  cause,  and  the  ser- 
vices of  the  Egyptian  Hebrews,  endeared  them  to  the  great 
Roman.     Before   leaving  Alexandria,  he   demonstrated  his 


(2)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xiv.,  x.  2. 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   ASMONEAN   RULERS.  191 

appreciation  of  the  Alexandrian  Hebrews  by  a  public 
declaration  that  they  were  citizens  of  Alexandria.  This 
decree  was  engraved  on  brass  pillars  (3). 

15.     Restoration  of  the  Hebrew  State. 

Soon  after  Julius  Caesar  came  to  Syria,  where  Antigonus, 
the  son  of  Aristobul,  appeared  before  him.  He  accused 
Antipater  that  by  his  instigation  Aristobul  was  poisoned 
and  Alexander  beheaded ;  also  that  Antipater  and  Hyrcan 
governed  the  nation  b}^  violence,  and  did  great  injustice  to 
him.  He  asked  of  Caesar  to  be  restored  to  the  throne  of  his 
fathers.  It  was  too  late.  Antipater  and  Hyrcan  had  ren- 
dered too  valuable  services  to  Csesar  in  time  of  need  to  be 
abandoned  by  him.  The  remonstration  of  Antipater  was 
brief  He  accused  Antigonus  and  his  party  of  innovations 
and  seditions,  defended  the  punishment  inflicted  on  Aris- 
tobul and  Alexander,  and  then  showed  the  scars  of  his 
wounds  received  in  the  Egyptian  campaign.  Cai^sar's 
decision  was  that  Hyrcan  should  be  highpriest  and 
ethnarch ;  that  all  the  provinces  and  cities  taken  from  him 
by  Pompey  and  his  successors  in  Syria  should  be  restored 
and  be  governed  henceforth  by  the  laws  of  the  Hebrews ; 
and  that  he  should  have  the  right  to  refortify  Jerusalem. 
Antipater  was  confirmed  as  Roman  procurator  {E'pitropos), 
to  govern  the  military  affairs  in  behalf  of  Rome,  with 
the  additional  title  of  a  Citizen  of  Rome.  Ceesar  made  his 
kinsman,  Sextus  Caesar,  President  of  Syria  (47  B.  c),  and 
left  the  country  (45  b.  c). 

16.     Cesar's  Decrees  in  Favor  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  decision  of  Caesar  was  sent  to  Rome  by  an  embassy 
of  Plyrcan,  for  the  ratification  and  publication  by  the  senate 
and  the  consuls.  In  the  various  edicts  bearing  the  name 
of  Julius  Caesar,  which  Josephus  has  preserved  (4),  the  fol- 
lowing rights  and  privileges  were  granted  to  the  Plebrews 
of  Palestine  : 

1.  That  Hyrcan  II.,  he  and  his  heirs  after  him,  shall  be 
the  hereditary  highpriest  and  ethnarch  of  the  Hebrews, 
"  according  to  the  custom  of  their  forefathers  ;"  and  that 
he  shall  decide  all  questions  concerning  Jewish  customs, 
consequently  be  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin  also. 

2.  That"  Hyrcan  and  his  people  shall  be  known  as  the' 


(3)  Josephus' Antiq.  xiv.,  xii;   Contra  Apion  11. 

(4)  Antiquities  xiv.  x. 


192        THE  LAST  OF  THE  ASMONEAN  RULERS. 

confederates  of  Rome  and  the  particular  friends  of  Caesar; 
that  no  Roman  commanders,  under  any  pretense  whatever, 
extort  contributions  from  them ;  tliat  tlie  city  of  Jerusalem 
be  fortified,  and  governed  by  the  ethnarch's  will  only ;  that 
the  tribute  due  to  Rome  shall  not  be  let  to  farm,  none  be 
paid  for  any  Sabbath  year,  nor  should  it  always  be  as  high 
as  it  was  that  year. 

3.  That  all  the  land,  towns  and  cities,  excepting  Joppa, 
shall  be  subject  and  tributary  to  Jerusalem,  as  heretofore, 
only  the  tribute  of  the  city  of  Jop})a  to  belong  personally 
to  Hyrcan  and  his  heirs ;  and  that  no  Roman  officer  shall 
have  the  right  of  raising  auxiliary  forces  in  Judea  or  of  im- 
posing a  contribution. 

4.  The  particular  honors  conf(>rrod  on  Hyrcan  "  and 
his  sons,"  or  the  embassadors  sent  by  him,  were  to  be 
seated  among  the  senators  in  the  public  games ;  when 
they  desire  an  audience  to  be  introduced  to  the  senate  by 
the  dictator  or  by  the  general  of  the  horse ;  and  that  any 
decree  concerning  them  be  made  known  to  them  within  ten 
days  after  it  had  passed  the  senate. 

5.  But  the  most  important  of  the  Caesar  decrees  was, 
that  Hyrcan  was  appointed  the  highest  authority  of  the 
Hebrews,  to  determine  all  questions  about  Jewish  custom, 
with  the  same  power  over  the  Hebrews  outside  of  Palestine, 
"  to  defend  those  who  are  injured;"  and  that  the  Hebrews 
outside  of  Palestine  were  declared  Roman  citizens,  with 
the  particular  rights  to  live  according  to  their  laws  and  cus- 
toms and  to  be  free  of  military  duty.  Their  public  gather- 
ings and  common  meals  in  Rome  and  the  provinces  were 
exempted  from  the  decree  against  bacchanalian  rioters. 

17.     Hyrcan  Honored  by  the  Athenians. 

The  services  which  Hyrcan  rendered  to  the  Athenians 
are  not  specified  in  the  sources.  They  acknowledged,  in 
general  terms  (5),  that  he  bore  good  wilfto  them  in  general, 
to  every  one  of  their  citizens  in  particular,  and  treated  them 
■with  all  manner  of  kindness  w^henever  they  came  to  him, 
as  embassadors  or  in  any  other  capacity.  Therefore,  they 
voted  him  a  crown  of  gold  and  a  decree  of  honor,  and 
erected  his  statue  of  brass  in  the  temple  of  Demus  and  of 
the  Graces. 


(5)    Ibid,  xiv.,  viii.  5, 


the  last  of  the  asmonean  rulers.  193 

18.     The  Home  Government. 

In  Palestine  the  government  was  restored  as  it  was 
"under  Queen  Alexandra,  with  the  exception  of  the  tribute 
paid  to  Rome  and  the  military  affairs  governed  by  Anti- 
pater.  The  service  in  the  temple  and  synagogues  remained 
unchanged.  The  small  number  of  priests  and  Levites  who 
liad  escaped  the  massacre  in  the  temple  by  Pompey,  con- 
tinued to  conduct  the  temple  service  in  the  Pharisean  style  ; 
and  the  Sopherim,  whose  numbers  increased  notwithstand- 
ing wars  and  seditions,  conducted  the  synagogues,  schools 
and  courts.  The  Sanhedrin  had  undergone  no  change.  It 
remained  in  the  power  of  the  Pharisees  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion,  while  the  Sadducees,  with 
the  other  fighting  men,  ever  since  63  b.  c,  were  most  of  the 
time  engaged  in  wars  and  seditions. 

19.     Shemaiah  and  Abtalion. 

The  policy  and  j^rovidentness  of  these  two  men  is  evi- 
dent from  their  maxims  left  in  Aboth  I.  Shemaiah  said : 
"  Love  labor,  hate  domination,  and  remain  unknown  to  the 
government."  There  are  wealth,  honesty  and  satisfaction  in 
labor,  the  loss  of  all  three  of  them  in  domination  and 
threatening  danger  near  the  highest  power,  especially  under 
the  perpetual  changes  which  that  sage  lived  to  see.  She- 
maiah cautioned  his  people  to  remain  industrious  and 
neutral,  wealthy  by  their  labor  and  free  by  not  domineering 
over  others,  which  was  a  blessing  to  thousands,  and  kept 
him  at  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin.  Abtalion,  who  was  more 
of  a  teacher  and  less  of  a  statesman  than  his  colleague, 
said  :  "  Ye  wise  men,  be  cautious  with  your  words  ;  perhaps 
ye  might  be  condemned  to  exile,  and  driven  to  a  place  of  stag- 
nant water,  and  then  the  disciples  succeeding  you  might 
drink  (of  your  misunderstood  words )  and  die,  and  so  the  name 
of  heaven  would  be  profaned."  He  saw  thousands  leave 
the  country,  compulsory  or  voluntary  exiles ;  and  among 
them  were  many  of  the  Sopherim.  In  his  time,  the  De- 
rasha  had  its  origin  (6).  The  laws  were  completed,  the 
doctrines  established,  and  the  doctors  began  to  seek  the 
origin  of  every  custom,  law  or  doctrine  in  the  Bible,  and 
this  research  was  called  Deraslia.    Shemaiah  and  Abtalion, 


(6)    'J1  D'fjnj  cit^mi  n-hr^i,  D^roi^n  pc'  jv^onsi  n"y?^:^»  ^ui  N»:n 

(Giiittino?  b),  D'ai^  min  nop  (Pesachim  70  b).  It  is  said  of  none 
laefore  Shemaiah  and  Aljtahon  that  he  was  "  a  great  Darshan,"  who 
taught  the  Law  to  the  public. 


194  THE    LAST   OF    THE   ASMONEAN   RULERS. 

who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  schools  as  well  as  of  the  San- 
hedrin,  withdrew  the  attention  from  politics  and  legislation 
and  gave  this  direction  to  susceptible  minds.  There  may 
have  l)een  advanced  many  an  unripe  thought  in  that  research, 
and  it  is  against  this  that  Abtalion  cautioned  the  wise  men. 
No  laws  ( Ilalaclioth)  bearing  the  names  of  these  heads 
of  the  Sanhedrin  are  reported,  and  only  a  few  are  recorded 
by  others  in  their  name,  viz.,  concerning  the  Sabbath  (7)^ 
the  posthumous  child  of  a  deceased  priest  (8),  the  bath  of 
purification  (9),  and  the  equality  of  the  freed  woman  with 
the  Hebrew  woman  in  regard  to  the  "bitter  water '^ 
{Sotah)  (10).  These  few  points  show  that  the  laws  of  the 
country  had  been  completed  before  that  time.  Two  of 
their  cotemporaries,  Juda  b.  Dositheus  and  his  son  Dosi- 
theus,  retired  to  the  south  of  Palestine,  because  they  disa- 
greed with  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion  (11).  The  names  of 
their  disciples,  except  Hillel  and  Shammai,  have  not  reached 
posterity. 

20.     Pacification  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  influence  of  the  Sanhedrin  and  Scribes  upon  the 
excited  parties  was  of  great  assistance  to  Antipater  in  re- 
storing domestic  peace.  While  in  44  b.  c.  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem were  rebuilt,  he  traveled  through  the  country  and 
made  known  the  present  situation,  that  Hyrcan  would  be  a 
father  to  the  people  and  the  Romans  its  friends,  if  the  pub- 
lic peace  were  not  disturbed ;  but  Hyrcan  would  become  a 
tyrant  and  the  Romans  the  people's  enemies  if  their 
authority  was  defied.  This,  it  appears,  had  the  desired 
effect  everywhere  except  in  Galilee,  where  the  friends  of  the 
deceased  Aristobul  were  not  so  ready  to  submit. 

21.     The  Wife  and  Sons   of  Antipater. 

Antipater  had  married  an  Idumean  princess  of  the  royal 
family  of  Arabia.  Her  name  was  Cypros  (Zipporah?).  She 
gave  birth  to  four  sons :  Phasael,  Herod,  Joseph  and 
Pheroras,  and  one  daughter,  Salome.  These  sons  had  spent 
most  of  their  time  in  Arabia,  and  were  estranged  to  the 
HeVjrews   by   birth  and   education.     After  Caesar  had  put 

(7)  Beza  25  a. 

(8)  Jchnmoth  67  a. 

(9)  MisHXAii  Edioth  i.  3. 

(10)  llihl  V.  6. 

(11)  'Nmn  p  min^  in  Pesachlm  70  b. 


THE    LAST   OF   THE   ASMONEAN    EULERS.  195 

Antipater  in  power,  they  were  recalled  from  Arabia  and  ap- 
pointed to  the  highest  positions.  Phasael  was  made  Gov- 
ernor of  Jerusalem  and  Herod  Governor  of  Galilee.  The 
latter  was,  in  44  b.  c,  about  twenty-three  years  old.  This 
Avas  certainly  an  insult  to  jDrominent  men,  and  a  cause  of 
dissatisfaction,  which  was  aggravated  by  the  lawless  conduct 
of  Herod  in  Galilee. 

22.     Herod's  Violation  of  the  Law.     The  Robbers. 

While  Phasael  was  very  cautious  in  the  exercise  of  his 
authority  in  Jerusalem,  and  succeeded  in  gaining  the  peo- 
ple's good  will  for  himself  and  his  father,  Herod  started 
out  a  self-willed  despot,  careless  of  any  law  which  inter- 
fered with  his  will.  The  partisans  of  Alexander  being  after 
his  death  without  a  leader,  disbanded  in  guerrilla  hordes, 
held  the  mountain  passes  and  caverns  of  northern  and 
eastern  Galilee,  and  of  Coelosyria,  and  subsisted  on  the 
booty  which  they  could  take  from  Hebrews  or  Syrians.  These 
guerrillas  were  called  robbers,  and  were  a  terror  to  the 
peace^lble  population.  Herod  pursued  and  captured 
many  of  them,  together  with  Hezekias,  one  of  their  chiefs, 
and,  instead  of  giving  them  a  trial  before  a  court  of  law, 
had  them  executed  by  his  own  authority  and  command. 
These  summary  proceedings  alarmed  many  law-abiding 
citizens,  although  it  gained  him  the  applause  of  many,  of 
Syrians  especially,  who  had  suffered  from  the  incursions  of 
those  guerrillas. 

23.     Herod  Summoned  Before  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  chief  men  of  the  Hebrews  gave  utterance  to  their 
indignation  before  Hyrcan.  The\"  told  him  that  he  was  no 
longer  the  ruler,  but  Antipater  and  his  sons  were.  The}'  de- 
manded that  Herod  be  brought  to  trial  for  his  defiance  of 
the  law.  Besides  these,  there  were  the  mothers  of  Herod's 
victims,  who  had  come  to  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  temple 
loudly  clamored  for  justice  in  behalf  of  their  slain  sons. 
At  last  Hvrcan  was  compelled  to  bring  Herod  to  trial,  al- 
though he  loved  him  paternally,  and  was  sincerely  attached 
to  Antipater.  By  order  of  Hyrcan,  Herod  was  summoned 
to  appear  before  tlie  Sanhedrin.  His  father  advised  him  to 
appear  with  a  body-guard  sufficient  to  protect  him  in  any 
emergency ;  and  Sextus  Csesar  wrote  to  Hyrcan  that  Herod 
must  be  acquitted. 


196  the  last  of  the  asmonean  rulers. 

24.     The  Trl\l  and   Flight  of  Herod. 

In  royal  robes  and  decorations,  and  surrounded  by 
a  large  body-guard,  Herod  appeared  (43  b  c.)  before  tho 
Sanhedrin.  This  novel  and  audacious  spectacle  confused 
the  high  lords  of  law  and  peace,  and  their  courage  failed 
them.  Hyrcan  presided  over  a  fear-stricken  body.  One, 
however,  was  bold  enough  to  speak,  and  that  was  Shemaiah. 
He  gave  utterance  to  his  indignation  that  a  man  accused  of 
high  crime  should  dare  to  appear  before  his  judges  in  royal 
pomp,  as  this  man  Herod  had  come  with  his  body-guard 
to  intimidate  the  Sanhedrin ;  and  then  he  turned  upon  his 
colleagues,  upbraided  them  for  their  cowardice  and  sub- 
serviency, and  closed  thus :  "  However,  take  you  notice 
that  God  is  great,  and  that  this  very  man,  whom  ye  are 
about  to  absolve  and  dismiss  for  the  sake  of  Hyrcan,  will 
one  day  punish  both  you  and  your  king  himself."  Now  the 
trial  was  opened  and  the  senators  appeared  ready  to  do 
justice  to  Herod.  Hyrcan  o1:»serving  that  his  favorite's  life 
was  seriously  jeopardized,  adjourned  the  Sanhedrin  to  the 
next  day.  During  the  niglit  Herod,  as  advised  by  Hyrcan, 
left  the  city  and  went  to  Damascus,  The  indignation  of 
the  Sanhedrin  and  the  predictions  of  friends  were  in  vain. 
They  could  not  move  Hyrcan  to  any  decisive  action  against 
Antipater  and  his  sons. 

25.  Herod  Invades  the  Country. 

Sextus  Csesar  appointed  Herod  general  of  the  Coelosyrian 
army,  and  he  invaded  Palestine.  This  placed  his  father 
and  brother  in  Jerusalem  in  a  precarious  condition.  They 
went  out  to  Herod,  and  succeeded  in  persuading  him  to 
leave  the  country  and  to  be  satisfied  with  the  demonstra- 
tion of  power  and  rank  he  had  made  in  the  face  of  liis 
enemies.  Herod  retired  with  his  army  and  remained  in  his 
office  in  spite  of  his  being  a  fugitive  from  justice. 

26.  Cassius  Again  in  Palestine. 

Shortly  after  the  return  of  Herod  to  Galilee,  Cecihus' 
Bassus,  one  of  Pompey's  partisans,  slew  Sextus  Caesar,  and 
took  possession  of  his  province  and  army  at  Apamia.  The 
generals  of  Julius  Cffisar  concentrated  their  forces  near 
Apamia,  and  Antipater  sent  his  sons  with  an  army  of  He- 
brews to  assist  them.  JNIarcus  was  sent  from  Rome  to  suc- 
ceed Sextus.     Meanwhile  Julius  Ceesar  was  assassinated  in 


THE    LAST    OF   THE    ASMONEAN    RULERS.  197 

Rome  (12),  and  one  of  his  murderers,  Cassius,  came  to 
Syria  to  take  possession  of  the  East  and  the  armies 
stationed  there  Both  Bassus  and  Marcus  made  peace  and 
went  over  to  Cassius.  A  great  war  was  pending  between 
the  two  parties  in  Rome,  the  Csesarians  and  the  Republi- 
cans. Cassius  prepared  for  it  and  needed  large  sums  of 
money.  He  demanded  of  Palestine  seven  hundred  talents; 
Antipater  and  Malichus  were  appointed  to  raise  that  sum. 
Herod  was  the  first  man  who  raised  his  share  of  one  hun- 
dred talents  in  Galilee,  which  gained  him  the  favor  of  Cas- 
sius. Antipater  raised  his  full  share,  but  Malichus  could 
not  do  it.  Cassius  reduced  to  slavery  the  inhabitants  of 
Gophna,  Emmaus,  Lydda  and  Thamna,  and  would  have 
killed  Malichus,  had  not  Hyrcan  given  the  missing  hun- 
dred talents  from  liLs  private  purse. 

27.     Death  of  Antipater  and  Malichus. 

Malichus  and  Antipater  were  Hyrcan's  mightiest  friends  ; 
only  that  the  former  believed  the  latter  was  becoming  too 
powerful.  Meanwhile,  Herod  rose  high  in  favor  with  Cas- 
sius and  Marcus,  which  confirmed  Malichus  in  his  belief  that 
Antipater  and  his  sons  were  dangerous  to  Hyrcan.  The 
first  attempt  of  Malichus  to  assassinate  Antipater  failed, 
and  was  strenuously  denied.  But  the  second  attempt  was 
successful.  Dining  in  the  palace  with  Hj-rcan,  Antipater  was 
poisoned,  and  died  (42  b.  c).  His  sons  were  informed  that 
tlie  misdeed  was  committed  by  Malichus,  and  Herod  re- 
ceived permission  of  Cassius  to  avenge  his  father's  death. 
He  came  to  .Jerusalem  with  a  band  of  foreign  soldiers,  still 
he  did  not  venture  to  slay  Malichus  there.  Meanwhile, 
Cassius  had  taken  Laodicea,  his  vassals  came  to  congratu- 
late, and  among  them  was  Malichus.  On  his  way  thither, 
before  the  city  of  T3^re,  Roman  assassins,  sent  by  Herod, 
slew  him.  Hyrcan  was  speechless  on  hearing  of  the  assassi- 
nation of  his"  friend  ;  but  Herod  made  him  believe  it  was 
done  by  command  of  Cassius,  because  Malichus  had  in- 
tended to  raise  a  revolt  and  dethrone  Hyrcan.  Hyrcan 
believed  him. 

28.     Consequences  of  this  Assassination. 

Cassius  and  his  army    marched  to  Philippi    and,  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  Roman  garrison   under  Felix,  in 

('12)  Suetonius  narrates  that  the  Hebrew  residents  of  Rome,  night 
after  night  visited  the  tomb  of  Julius  Ceesar.  Lives  of  the  Emperors 
in  C.  J.  Csesar,  chap.  84. 


198         THE  LAST  OF  THE  ASMOXEAN  RULERS. 

Jerusalem,  the  land  was  without  foreign  soldiers.  A  brother 
of  Malichus  took  possession  of  several  cities,  and  Herod 
Avas  ill  at  Damascus.  In  Jerusalem,  the  Roman  commander, 
supported  by  some  of  the  citizens,  attacked  Phasael,  and  it 
appeared  that  the  sons  of  Antipater  would  be  overcome. 
But  Phasael  fought  his  opponents,  shut  Felix  up  in  a  tower, 
and  then  dismissed  him  from  the  city.  Herod  recovered, 
came  with  an  army,  in  a  short  time  retook  the  lost  cities, 
and  restored  peace.  Hyrcan  was  as  weak  as  usual  in  this 
combat  of  the  parties,  and  was  accused  by  Phasael  of  in- 
gratitude against  the  memory  of  Antipater.  The  weak 
highpriest  could  not  rid  himself  of  the  sons  of  Antipater, 
and  the  next  event  delivered  him  entirely  into  their  hands. 

29.     Antigonus  in  the  Field — Herod  Affiances 
Mariamne. 

The  absence  of  the  Romans  from  Syria  and  the  insur- 
rection of  a  party  against  the  sons  of  Antipater,  encour- 
aged a  foreign  coalition  in  favor  of  placing  Antigonus,  the 
youngest  son  of  Aristobul  II.,  upon  the  throne.  The  co- 
alition consisted  of  Antigonus  and  his  friends,  Ptolemy, 
his  brother-in-law,  who  was  the  Prince  of  Chalcis,  Fabius, 
the  Prince  of  Tyre,  and  Marion,  the  commander  of  the  re- 
maining Roman  soldiers,  who  had  been  bribed  by  the 
princes.  They  invaded  Palestine  from  the  north,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  several  cities.  A  general  insurrection  of 
the  Hebrews  which  was  expected,  did  not  come  to  pass, 
and  Herod  succeeded  in  repelling  the  invasion.  So  Hyrcan 
was  saved  once  more,  and  was  so  much  more  indebted  to 
Herod,  who,  coming  to  Jerusalem,  was  received  with  dem- 
onstrations of  gratitude  and  enthusiasm.  Herod  was  mar- 
ried, the  name  of  his  wife  was  Doris,  by  whom  he  had 
several  children.  Still  Hyrcan  gave  his  consent  to  Herod's 
betrothal  of  the  beautiful  Mariamne,  his  and  Aristobul's 
grand-daughter  by  Alexander  and  Alexandra.  This  made 
the  Idumean  a  member  of  the  Asmonean  family. 

30.     Marc  Antony  in  Syria. 

Meanwhile  (42  b.  c.)  the  fate  of  Rome  was  decided  in 
the  battle  of  Philippi,  in  Macedonia.  The  republican  army 
was  vanquished,  Brutus  and  Cassius  were  dead,  Octavius 
Augustus  and  Marc  Antony  were  the  victors  and  Lirds  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  After  the  battle  Augustus  went  back 
to  Italy,  and  Marc  Antony  came  into  Syria.  Having  ar- 
rived at   Bithynia,  in  Asia  Minor,  the   princes    and  repre- 


i 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   ASMONEAN    RULERS;  199 

sentatives  of  many  nations,  and  among  them  also  the  friends 
of  Hyrcan,  came  to  win  the  favor  of  the  mighty  chief. 
They  complained  that  Herod  and  Phasael  were,  in  fact, 
their  kings,  and  Hyrcan  was  an  impotent  figurehead.  But- 
the  sons  of  Antipater  also  had  come  to  Bithynia,  and 
Herod  had  brought  plenty  of  money  for  Marc  Antony,  who, 
l^eing  a  friend  of  the  deceased  Antipater,  Ijestowed  his 
grace  on  Herod,  so  that  the  Hebrews  found  no  hearing. 
When  Antony  had  reached  Ephesus,  he  was  met  by  the 
ambassadors  of  Hyrcan  and  the  nation,  who  presented  him 
with  a  crown  of  gold.  They  were  graciously  received. 
Their  petition  was  to  restore  the  liberty  and  property  of  the 
inhabitants  of  those  cities  which  Cassius  had  confiscated. 
The  petition  was  granted,  decrees  to  this  eflfect  were  pub- 
lished, the  Tyrians  were  commanded  to  restore  all  cities 
and  persons  taken  from  the  Hebrews ;  and  all  the  decrees 
of  the  senate  under  Julius  Ca?sar  concerning  the  Hebrews 
in  and  out  of  Palestine  were  renewed  or  reconfirmed  by 
Marc  Antony  and  Dolabella  (13) ;  so  that,  as  far  as  the 
Romans  were  concerned,  no  cause  of  complaint  was  left  to 
the  Hebrews.  But  the  sons  of  Antipater  had  many  ene- 
mies among  the  aristocracy ;  and  one  hundred  of  them 
waited  upon  Marc  Antony  at  Daphne,  and  in  the  presence 
of  Hyrcan,  by  their  most  eloquent  orators,  accused  Herod 
and  his  brother.  Messala  replied  in  behalf  of  the  brothers, 
and  Hyrcan,  interrogated  by  Marc  Antony,  decided  in  their 
favor.  The  delegation  was  indignantly  dismissed,  and 
fifteen  of  them  were  imprisoned.  Herod  and  Phasael  were 
appointed  tetrarchs  (princes  of  a  fourth  of  the  land),  which 
merely  added  a  title  to  their  respective  offices.  This  gave 
rise  to  new  tumults  in  Jerusalem,  and  a  delegation  of 
one  thousand  men  went  to  Tyre  to  meet  Marc  Antony. 
Hyrcan  and  Herod  had  prayed  them  to  abstain  from  the 
demonstration,  and  accosted  them  again  outside  of  Tyre 
with  the  same  prayer ;  but  they  insisted  upon  their  plan. 
By  order  of  Antony  a  body  of  soldiers  attacked  the  delega- 
tion, slew  and  wounded  many  of  them.  Still  those  who  had 
escaped  raised  their  voices  so  loudly  in  Jerusalem,  that 
Antony  was  provoked,  and  he  slew  also  the  fifteen  men 
in  bonds.  However,  while  this  struggle  of  the  parties 
was  going  on  in  Palestine,  Hyrcan  being  the  protector  of 
the  Hebrews  in  the  Roman  Empire,  succeeded  in  obtaining 
for  them  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  as  Roman  citizens 
and  immunity  from  military  service  (41  B.  c). 

(13)     Josephus'  Antiquities  xiv.,  x.  and  xii. 


200  the  last  of  the  asmonean  rulers. 

31.     Antigonus  in  Jerusalem. 

Once  more  Syria  changed  masters.  Pacorus,  King  of 
Parthia,  drove  the  Romans  out  of  Syria  (40  b.  c.)  and  left- 
there  Barzapharnes  as  governor.  Lysanius,  the  son  of 
Ptolemy,  now  Prince  of  Chalcis,  and  Antigonus  succeeded, 
by  a  promise,  to  this  governor,  of  a  thousand  talents  and 
five  hundred  beautiful  women,  in  inducing  him  to  invade 
Judea  in  order  to  enthrone  Antigonus  in  Jerusalem.  The 
Parthian  army  invaded  Palestine  from  two  sides,  half  of  it 
came  down  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  other 
half  attempted  to  march  through  Galilee.  The  Galileans, 
however,  checked  its  progress.  They  had  no  knowledge  of 
the  Antigonus  scheme.  A  small  corps  of  cavalry  was 
given  to  Antigonus  by  the  Parthian  commander  to  recon- 
noiter  in  Palestine.  He  advanced  with  them  to  Mount  Car- 
mel,  and  was  joined  by  a  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
district.  As  he  proceeded  his  corps  grew,  so  that,  unex- 
pectedly, he  appeared  in  force  before  Jerusalem,  and  entered 
it  without  opposition.  Now,  Herod  and  Phasael  came  out. 
of  Castle  Paris  to  meet  him,  and  a  fight  ensued.  Antigonus 
was  beaten,  but  managed  to  reach  the  temple  and  to  ex- 
clude Herod.  The  priests  and  the  embittered  aristocracy,, 
of  course,  favored  Antigonus  and  strengthened  his  position,, 
and  they  were  supported  by  many  of  the  citizens,  as  Herod 
had  soon  an  opportunity  to  discover.  He  had  placed  a. 
posse  of  sixty  men  in  houses,  from  which  the  movements  in 
the  temple  could  be  observed.  A  number  of  citizens  set 
those  houses  on  fire,  and  the  men  perished  in  them.  Herod 
avenged  this  deed  by  an  attack  on  the  citizens,  many  of 
whom  were  killed  ;  but  it  must  have  convinced  him  that  he 
could  not  hold  out  much  longer. 

32.     Hyrcan,  Phasael  and  Herod  Leave  Jerusalem. 

Herod  made  one  more  attempt  to  dislodge  Antigonus. 
A  large  number  of  pilgrims  came  to  the  city  to  celebrate 
Pentecost,  Herod  attempted  to  win  them  to  his  cause,  but 
they  were  divided  into  two  parties  ;  a  great  deal  of  fighting 
and  bloodshed  ensued,  without  any  result,  and  Herod  could 
no  longer  govern  the  enraged  parties  in  the  city.  He  was 
advised  to  admit  the  Parthian  cavalry  encamped  outside 
of  the  city  to  restore  peace,  and  he  did  so.  Now  he  was 
persuaded  to  send  Pliasael  as  an  ambassador  to  the 
King  of  Parthia,  so  that  he  might  decide  the  matter.  He 
suspected  the  honor  and  the  word  of  the  Parthians,  still  he 
consented  to  the  proposition.     Hyrcan  and  Phasael  went  to- 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    ASMONEAN    RULERS.  201 

the  King  of  Partliia.  When  they  had  reached  the  Parthian 
arni}'  of  the  north  they  were  well  received  and  courteously 
treated.  Too  late,  however,  they  discovered  that  the  Par- 
thians  were  the  allies  of  Antigonus.  As  soon  as  it  Avas 
reasonably  supposed  that  the  other  army  might  have 
reached  Jerusalem,  Hyrcan  and  Phasael  Avere  put  in 
chains  and  sent  to  the  King  of  Parthia.  Herod  being  in- 
formed of  their  fate  saw  himself  surrounded  by  enemies 
and  his  life  in  danger.  His  intended  mother-in-laAV,  Alex- 
andra, a  shrewd  woman,  convinced  him  that  he  could  save 
himself  and  the  whole  family  only  by  speedy  flight.  In  the 
night,  and  with  as  many  men  as  he  thought  were  trust- 
worthy, Herod  took  Mariamne,  her  mother  and  brother,  his 
mother  and  brother,  and  a  son  of  Phasael,  Avith  all  their 
servants,  and  quietly  left  the  city  with  them,  to  travel 
soutliAvard  into  Idumea.  He  Avas  attacked  several  times  by 
Parthians  and  Hebrews,  especially  at  a  spot  eight  miles 
from  Jerusalem,  Avhere,  in  memory  thereof,  he  built  after- 
Avard  the  fortress  of  Herodium ;  but  he  always  routed  his 
assailants,  and  conducted  his  train  of  people  and  baggage 
to  jMassada.  HaA'ing  taken  possession  of  that  city,  he  left 
there  eight  hundred  men  under  command  of  his  brother 
Joseph,  together  Avith  the  Avhole  family  and  their  servants, 
proA'isioned  the  city,  and  then,  in  company  Avith  Phasael's 
son,  set  out  for  Hume. 

33.    Antigonus  King  and  Highpriest  (40  b.  c). 

Hyrcan  and  the  sons  of  Antlpater  being  disposed  of, 
Antigonus  Avas  proclaimed  king  and  highpriest.  The  Par- 
thians, having  received  a  thousand  talents,  had  to  leave 
without  the  fiA^e  hundred  beautiful  women,  Avho  had  escaped 
from  the  hands  of  their  captors.  The  Parthians  plundered 
the  palace  and  the  houses  of  the  rich  in  and  near  Jeru- 
salem, burnt  doAvn  hamlets  and  toAvns,  and  then  left  the 
country.  Apparently,  all  parties  Avere  satisfied,  and  peace 
would  have  returned  to  the  unhappy  land,  after  thirty  years- 
of  incessant  combats  betAveen  the  two  branches  of  the 
Asmonean  family,  if  the  Romans  had  not  interfered  again. 
The  Parthians  had  too  many  HebrcAvs  in  their  provinces 
not  to  be  Avell  disposed  toAvard  those  in  Palestine  ;  and  Antig- 
onus united  in  his  person  the  glory  of  tlie  Asmoneans  and 
the  anti-Roman  feelings,  Avhich  made  him  both  popular  and 
admired.  The  Parthians  sent  him  Hyrcan  and  Phasael. 
He  had  Hyrcan's  ears  cut  off  so  that  he  could  be  liighpriest 
no  more,  and   then  he  let  him  return   to    the  Parthians. 


20J        THE  LAST  OF  THE  ASMONEAN  RULERS. 

Phasael  was  to  be  placed  before  a  court-martial,  but  he  com- 
mitted suicide  in  his  prison.  Massada  was  besieged,  but 
not  assailed,  and  this  certainly  was  a  grave  mistake.  On 
the  whole,  Antigonus  appears  to  have  dealt  very  kindly 
with  his  enemies. 

34.     Herod  Crowned  King  of  Judea. 

The  deathless  ambition  of  princes  has  brought  on  the 
nations  most  of  the  misery  which  they  have  suffered. 
Herod,  with  Phasael's  son,  left  Massada,  went  to  Arabia, 
whose  king,  Malchus,  being  a  debtor  to  Antipater's  ftimily, 
did  not  permit  him  to  enter  it.  He  went  to  Rhinocolura, 
where  he  was  informed  of  his  brother's  death,  and  thence  to 
Egypt.  Cleopatra  wanted  to  keep  him  near  her,  but  he  in- 
sisted, notwithstanding  the  stormy  season,  on  going  forth- 
with to  Rome.  At  Pelusium  he  took  ship  and  set  sail  for 
Italy.  The  storm  shattered  his  vessel,  but  he  was  driven 
on  shore  at  Rhodus.  Some  of  his  rich  friends  there  gave 
him  another  ship,  in  which  he  arrived  at  Brundisium  in 
September.  40  b.  c,  and  traveled  by  land  to  Rome.  He 
found  Marc  Antony  in  Rome,  informed  him  of  the  situation 
in  Syria,  and  proposed  Hyrcan's  grandson,  then  thirteen 
years  old,  as  king  or  ethnarch  of  Judea.  Rome,  however, 
needed  the  strong  arm  of  a  tried  and  faithful  soldier  in 
Judea  against  the  Parthians,  and  Plerod  was  the  man.  An- 
tony and  Augustus  united  on  him,  the  senate  gave  its  con- 
sent, and  Herod  was  led  in  state  to  the  capitol.  and  was 
solemnly  crowned  King  of  Judea.  It  was  an  outrage,  but 
done  it  was,  and  eight  days  after  his  arrival  Herod  left  Rome 
at  the  head  of  two  legions,  to  return  to  Palestine,  and  to 
take  possession  of  its  throne. 

35.     Herod  Relieves  Massada  and  Besieges 
Jerusalem. 

Near  Ptolemais  Herod  landed  his  army,  and  the  He- 
brews of  his  party  came  to  him  in  large  numbers.  While 
Ventidius  commanded  the  Romans  in  Syria  against  the ' 
Parthians,  Herod  began  his  operations  by  the  capture  of 
Joppa,  and  the  relieving  of  Massada.  Meanwhile  Silo,  with 
several  legions,  sent  by  Venditius,  appeared  before  Jeru- 
salem. A  plentiful  bribe  convinced  the  Roman  that 
the  cause  of  Antigonus  was  just,  and  he  left  Jerusalem. 
The  Hebrews  followed  him  and  pressed  him  hard,  when  he 
was  joined  by  Herod  and  persuaded  to  return  to  the  siege 


I 


THE    LAST   OF   THE    ASMONEAN    RULERS.  203 

of  Jerusalem.  Both  armies  took  positions  west  of  the 
city,  where  they  were  beaten  repeatedly  and  with  great 
losses  by  the  defenders  of  the  city.  Herod  addressed  a 
manifesto  to  the  people,  in  which  he  promised  pardon  to  all 
and  generous  governnient  to  the  country  if  he  were  placed 
on  the  throne.  Antigonus  replied  in  another  document,  in 
Avhich  he  pointed  to  his  inherited  right  and  the  usurpation 
of  Herod,  and  added  that  if  the  Romans  hated  him  they  might 
appoint  another  Asmonean  in  his  place,  but  not  an  Idumean 
half- Jew.  Silo,  being  promised  more  money,  discovered 
again  that  Herod  was  wrong,  and  acted  accordingly.  The 
Homans  ransacked  Jericho  and  became  unmanageable,  and 
Herod  was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  (39  b.  c.)  He  sent  his 
brother,  Joseph,  to  Idumea  into  winter  quarters  Avith  a  por- 
tion of  his  army,  and  went  with  the  remainder,  and  with 
his  family,  to  Samaria. 

36.     Subjection  op  Galilee. 

While  Joseph  occupied  Idumea,  and  his  brother,  Phe- 
roras,  repaired  the  fortifications  of  Alexandrium,  Herod 
placed  his  family  and  bride  in  safety  at  Samaria,  and  began 
the  reduction  of  Galilee.  He  took  Sepphoris  without  re- 
sistance, and  was  soon  master  of  Lower  Galilee.  In  Upper 
Galilee,  however,  there  were  numerous  guerrilla  bands, 
to  which  he  had  given  the  disreputable  name  of  robbers. 
They  dwelt  in  the  caves  of  wild  and  craggy  mountains,  and 
could  not  be  dislodged  by  ordinary  means.  The  crafty 
Herod  invented  means  to  reach  them.  Large  wooden  boxes, 
filled  with  soldiers  and  provisions,  were  lowered  by  ropes 
from  the  top  of  the  steep  declivities  to  the  mouths  of  the 
caves,  and  their  inmates  were  dragged  out  with  hooks  fastened 
to  long  poles,  if  they  could  not  be  reached  otherwise.  Some 
surrendered,  others  were  slain,  again  others,  and  among  them, 
one  wlio  slew  his  wife  and  seven  children,  committed 
suicide,  dying  with  imprecations  on  their  lips  upon  Herod 
-and  Rome.  Still  he  succeeded  during  the  winter  in  the 
subjugation  of  all  Galilee. 

37.     The  Prospects  of  Antigonus  Improve. 

The  summer  campaign  of  38  b.  c.  was  opened  by  the 
Homan  commander,  Macherus,  who,  with  two  legions  and 
one  thousand  cavalry,  supported  Herod,  and  marched  to 
Jerusalem.  Like  Silo,  Macherus  also  was  not  very  eager  to 
assist  Herod,  who,  besides  the  favoritism  of  Marc  Antony, 


204        THE  LAST  OF  THE  ASMONEAN  RULERS. 

had  no  claim  on  the  throne  of  Judea,  which,  by  decree  of 
Julius  Csesar,  was  secured  to  Hyrcan  II.  and  his  heirs.  So 
Macherus  took  as  much  money  as  he  could  get  from  Antig- 
onus,  and  was  ready  to  leave,  when  the  defenders  of  Jeru- 
salem fell  on  his  legions  and  inflicted  a  severe  punishment 
on  them.  The  Romans  retreated  and  slew  Herod's  friends 
as  well  as  his  foes,  so  that  Herod  was  obliged  to  retreat  into 
Samaria  and  to  go  once  more  to  Marc  Antony.  He  left  his 
brother,  Joseph,  in  command  of  the  forces  in  Judea.  with 
strict  injunctions  not  to  risk  a  battle.  In  violation  of  or- 
ders, however,  he  attacked  Pappus,  one  of  the  generals  of 
Antigonus,  was  defeated  and  slain  with  the  legions  of  his. 
command.  Why  Antigonus  did  not  attack  the  forces  of 
Herod  before  his  return,  is  not  known.  It  appears  he  did 
not  inherit  the  Asmonean  brilliancy  of  design  and  rapidity 
of  strategetical  movements.  Also  in  Galilee,  the  enemies  of 
Herod  rose  again,  and  cast  many  of  his  friends  into  the  sea; 
but  they  received  no  succor  from  Jerusalem. 

38.     Herod  Supported  by  Marc  Antony. 

While  Venditius  defeated  the  Parthians,  slew  their  king 
and  drove  them  out  of  Syria,  Marc  Antony  revelled  in 
Athens,  and  brutally  indulged  in  all  the  excesses  of  that 
debased  age  and  city,  Avhere  art  and  learning  had  become 
the  handmaids  of  the  lowest  sensuality.  After  a  year  of 
degrading  debaucher}',  he  was  disturbed  by  Venditius,  who 
called  him  to  the  front.  He  went  to  Samosatha,  which  the 
Romans  besieged.  Thither  also  went  Herod,  and  brought 
with  him  the  friends  and  adulators  of  Antony,  who  lacked 
the  courage  and  skill  to  pass  the  hordes  of  Arabian  robbers 
infesting  the  country.  This  secured  a  friendly  welcome  to 
Herod.  Presents,  promises  and  adulations  reminded  An- 
tony that  he  had  made  Herod  King  of  Judea,  and  Sosius 
Avas  sent  with  a  large  army  to  sup])ort  him.  Before  this 
army  could  reach  Judea,  Herod  returned  and,  with  his  own 
men,  attacked  Pappus,  defeated  his  army,  and  slew  him 
with  his  own  hands.  When  the  winter  approached,  Antig- 
onus saw  himself  confined  to  Jerusalem  and  its  environs. 

39.    Jerusalem  and  Antigonus  Captured. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  37  b.  c,  the  two  large  armies  of 
Herod  and  Sosius  united  before  Jerusalem.  Preparations 
for  a  long  siege  had  been  made  in  the  city,  and  one  of  the 
most  bloody  conflicts  was  incessantly  carried  on  betweea 


THE    LAST    OF   THE   ASMONEAN    RULERS.  205 

tbe  contending  armies.  Outside  of  the  walls,  there  was 
the  superiority  of  numbers  and  generalship,  and  inside 
death-defying  bravery  and  infuriated  hatred.  However, 
there  were  not  a  few  Pharisees  and  Essenes  in  the  city, 
Abtalion  and  Shamniai  among  the  former  and  Menahem 
among  the  latter,  who  had  prophesied  the  success  of  Herod, 
and  wanted  to  open  the  gates  to  him.  Still  their  counsel 
was  disregarded  by  the  warriors.  A  number  of  wonderful 
escapes  from  imminent  danger  were  made  use  of  by  Herod's 
friends  to  show  that  he  was  heaven-sent  and  miracles  had 
been  wrought  in  his  behalf.  This,  undoubtedly,  pacified 
many  and  caused  numerous  believers  in  miracles  to  submit 
to  the  apparent  decrees  of  heaven.  Still  the  defenders  of 
the  city  were  resolved  to  fight  to  the  last,  and  Herod  was 
obliged  to  build  up  slowly  three  lines  of  siege  works  under 
incessant  and  bloody  sallies  from  the  city.  While  the  siege 
works  were  constructing  he  married  Mariamne,  Hyrcan's 
grand-daughter,  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  most  beautiful 
woman  in  her  country.  Eleven  legions  and  six  thousand 
cavalry  were  encamped  before  Jerusalem.  When  the  siege 
works  were  constructed  and  the  engines  in  position,  the  bat- 
tering and  storming  commenced,  and  it  took  sixty  days  of 
Lard  fighting  before  the  city  was  taken.  The  Romans  poured 
in  like  furies,  massacred  without  discrimination,  destroyed 
and  plundered,  and  none  could  stop  them,  not  even  Herod, 
until  he  promised  a  special  reward  to  each  soldier  for  stop 
ping  the  horrible  work  of  destruction.  Antigonus  surren- 
dered to  Sosius  and  knelt  before  him  praying  for  his  life. 
The  haughty  Roman  called  him  Antigona,  the  woman,  and 
sent  him  to  Marc  Antony.  After  Sosius  had  received  rich 
presents  and  had  made  sacrifices  in  the  temple  to  the  God 
of  Israel,  he  left  the  city,  and  Herod,  by  the  grace  of  Marc 
Antony,  was  King  of  Judea. 

40.     The  Crucified  King  of  Judea. 

Marc  Antony  intended  to  spare  Antigonus  and  to  bring 
him  to  Rome  to  figure  in  his  triumph.  Herod,  however, 
was  afraid  the  heroic  and  legitimate  king  might  find  friends 
in  Rome  to  plead  his  cause  before  the  senate.  Therefore, 
he  insisted  that  Antony  should  slay  Antigonus,. and  the 
last  of  the  Asmonean  kings,  b}'  command  of  Marc  Antony, 
was  crucified,  37  b.  c.  Strabo  says  he  was  beheaded,  but 
Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Antony,  and  Dio  Cassius  (Book 
XLix.),  both  state  that  he  was  crucified.  Plutarch  says  that 
this  was  the  first  king  thus  put  to  death  by  the  Roman 


206  THE    LAST   OF   THE    ASMONEAJT  BULERS. 

victor.  Dio  says,  "Antony  now  gave  the  kingdom  tcr-m^t^- 
tain  Herod,  and,  having  stretched  Antigonus  on  the  cross 
and  scourged  him,  which  had  never  been  done  before  to  a 
king  by  the  Romans,  he  put  him  to  death."  The  sympa- 
thies of  the  masses  for  the  crucified  King  of  Judea,  the 
lieroic  son  of  so  many  heroic  ancestors,  and  the  legends 
growing,  in  time,  out  of  this  historical  nucleus,  became, 
perhaps,  the  source  from  which  Paul  and  the  Evangelists 
preached  Jesus  as  "  The  Crucified  King  of  Judea." 


HEROD   AND    HILLEL.  207 


CHAPTER   XIX. 


Herod  and  Hillel. 


1,     Domineering  Circumstances. 

The  victor  had  many  admirers  and  many  more  feared 
him.  In  the  Sabbath  year  and  on  the  Feast  of  Pentecost 
(37  B.  c),  Jerusalem  was  captured.  After  all  the  carnage 
by  the  Romans,  Herod  slew  forty-five  of  the  principal  men 
of  the  Antigonus  party.  The  sons  of  Buta,  kinsmen  of  the 
Asmoneans,  were  also  condemned  to  death,  but  they  were 
saved  by  one  of  Herod's  officers  (1).  He  gathered  up  all 
the  treasures  he  could  find  among  the  living  or  the  dead, 
and  sent  them  to  Marc  Antony  to  secure  to  himself  the 
throne  in  Jerusalem.  Pious  souls  saw  in  Herod  the  man 
of  destiny,  but  many  more  feared  him,  and  trembled  before 
Rome's  threatening  sword.  His  title  had  been  improved 
through  his  marriage,  for  Mariamne  and  her  brother  were 
the  legitimate  heirs  to  the  crown  according  to  the  decree  of 
Julius  Csesar  and  the  more  ancient  grant  of  the  Hebrews  to 
Simon  and  his  heirs.  But  Hyrcan  and  his  grand-son,  Aris- 
tobul  III.,  were  still  alive,  and  Herod's  title  was  that  of  an 
upstart  and  usurper  (2).  He  was  either  pious  enough  or  suf- 
ficiently prudent  to  protect  the  temple  against  every  viola- 
tion, and  to  have  it  honored  also  by  Sosius,  who  dedicated 
to  it  a  golden  crown  ;  still  the  priests  must  certainly  have 
been  the  enemies  of  him  who  caused  the  highpriest  to  be 
scourged  and  crucified  like  a  Roman  slave.  The  Saddu- 
cees  and  the  entire  aristocracy  naturally  hated  and  despised 

(1)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xv.  1.  See  Baba  b.  Buta ;  Gitlin  57 ;  Baha 
Bathra  .S ;   Nednrhn  66  ;   Kerithofh  97. 

(2)  Josephns  calls  Herod  "  the  Great,"  which  means  "  the  Elder," 
as  then  the  n:3~I  was  understood  to  distinguish  one  from  the  x-|»yT.  the 
second  or  third  of  the  same  name.     Rapaport's  Erech  Mill  in,  p.  132. 


203  HEROD   AND   HILLED. 

him  who  took  the  power  out  of  their  hands  and  bestowed 
it  upon  his  favorites,  most  of  them  foreigners ;  and  among 
the  Pharisees  the  number  of  democrats  and  enemies  of  Rome 
was  certainly  considerable.  According  to  rabbinical  tradition, 
Herod  slew  all  the  rabbis,  which  is  an  exaggeration.  Yet, 
among  the  forty-five  friends  of  Antigonus,  who  were  slain, 
there  were,  undoubtedly,  also  Phariscan  senators.  Under 
such  circumstances  Herod  mounted  the  throne  of  Judea  to 
govern  a  nation  of  democrats,  soldiei's  and  personal  enemies 
of  his.  Under  these  circumstances  only  one  form  of  gov- 
ernment was  possible,  and  that  was  absolutism.  Herod's 
cardinal  crime,  the  imposition  of  absolutism,  was  the  dic- 
tum of  circumstances. 

2.     Usurpations  and  Comtromises. 

Herod,  as  far  as  possible,  usurped  all  the  powers  of  the 
State.  He  took  under  his  control  the  temple  and  the 
priests.  He  appointed  a  personal  friend  of  his,  Ananelus, 
an  obscure  Babylonian,  highpriest,  and  organized  a  new 
Sanhedrin  under  the  elders  of  Bethyra,  who  appear  also  to 
have  been  Babylonians  (3).  These  elders  were  Pharisees, 
although  the  doctors  never  acknowledged  their  authority  as 
bearers  and  expositors  of  the  traditions,  because  they  were 
not  sufficiently  learned  (4),  and,  perhaps,  also  because  they 
made  a  compromise  with  Herod  in  favor  of  absolutism,  in 
order  to  save  some  authority  for  the  Sanhedrin.  There  are 
on  the  Hebrew  statute  book  three  laws  especially  which 
could  have  been  enacted  only  by  this  Sanhedrin  : 

1.  The  king  can  not  be  a  judge,  hence  no  member  of  a 
Sanhedrin,  and  can  not  be  judged  or  tried  for  any  crime; 
he  can  not  be  a  witness  in  any  case,  nor  can  anybody  tes- 
tify against  him  (5).     This  placed  the  king  above  the  law. 

2.  The  king  may  condemn  to  death  b\'  the  sword,  or 
punish  otherwise,  without  co-operation  or  interference  of 
any  Court  of  law,  any  man  who  rebels  against  him  (tiid 
niD^oa),  disobeys  his  commands,  or  pays  not  the  taxes ;  and 
may  cause  to  be  slain  any  murderer,  cleared  by  a  Court  of 
justice  on  technical  grounds  (6).  This  justified  the  former 
crimes  of  Herod   and  conferred  on  him  absolute  power. 


(3)     Bathyra,  Josephus'  Antiq.  xvii.,  ii.  2. 

^4)     m^na  '•^30  nJD^yns  it  na^n  PesacMm  66  a,  and  paral.  passages. 

(5)  MisHNAif,  Sunhedrin  ii.  2. 

(6)  Maimonides,   Mishnah  Thorah,  Melachim  iii.  8,  10  and  iv.  1, 
and  sources  in  loco  citate. 


HEROD  AND  HILLEL.  209 

3.  The  property  of  those  condemned  to  death  by  the 
king  belongs  to  the  king,  while  the  property  of  all  other 
condemned  criminals  belongs  to  the  proper  heirs  (7).  This 
justified  all  the  robberies  committed  by  Herod  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem. 

There  are  on  record  derived  laws  of  this  Sanhedrin 
{Halaehoth)y  but  no  legislative  enactments  {Teka- 
noth)  (8). 

Herod  being  thus  in  possession  of  the  fourfold  power,  the 
executive,  military,  judicio-legislative  and  ecclesiastic,  had 
no  objections  to  the  continuation  of  the  usual  discharge  of 
duty  by  the  Sanhedrin,  scribes  and  priests,  so  long  as  none 
interfered  with  the  political  affairs  of  his  government. 
Therefore  all  internal  affairs  of  the  country  were  apparently 
undisturbed,  although,  for  the  first  time  since  the  days  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  Judea  was  under  the  iron  scepter  of 
absolutism. 

3.     Hyrcan  Returns  from  Parthia. 

Herod's  throne  was  not  secured  yet.  In  the  East,  a 
sister  of  Antigonus  held  Hyrcanium  and  the  surrounding 
country  (9),  which  had  to  be  taken  from  her  by  force  of 
arms.  At  home,  his  wife,  her  brother,  and  their  mother 
were  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  crown  which  he  wore.  Worst 
of  all,  Hyrcan  II.,  the  king  <^ejwre.  was  in  the  power  of  the 
Parthians,  who  might  place  him  on  the  throne  of  Judea,  as 
had  been  done  with  Antigonus.  The  fact  that  the  ex-king 
and  highpriest  was  treated  with  kindness  and  distinction 
by  the  king  and  the  numerous  Hebrews  of  Parthia,  in- 
creased Herod's  suspicion.  Therefore,  b}"  adroit  manage- 
ment, Hyrcan  Avas  persuaded  to  return  to  Jerusalem,  and  he 
did  so  contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  Parthian  king  and 
Hebrews,  although  the  latter  furnished  ample  means  to 
send  him  home  in  royal  state.  Herod  received  him  affec- 
tionately, and  showered  on  him  all  the  honors  he  could  be- 
stow, while  in  his  heart  he  must  have  maliciously  triumphed 
in  now  having  the  whole  family  in  his  power. 


(7)  Maimonides  ibkl  iv.  9  and  sources  \hid.  It  is  evident  that  these 
laws  did  not  exist  before  Herod,  except  No.  3,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Israel  (I.  Kings  xxi.) ;  also  that  they  were  not  enacted  under  Hillel 
or  any  time  thereafter. 

(8)  Sahhath  94  and  120;  Pesachim  46  and  108;  Guitlin  59; 
Zebachim.  12 ;  Menachoth  6. 

(9)  Jos.  Wars  I.  xix.  1. 


210  HEROD   AND   HILLEL. 

4.    Aristobul  III.  Appointed  Highpriest  and  Slain. 

Herod  soon  felt  the  influence  of  his  mother-in-law, 
Alexandra.  She  took  it  as  an  insult  to  her  family,  that  an 
obscure  Babylonian  was  preferred  to  her  son,  who  was  the 
lawful  heir  of  the  high-priestly  dignity.  She  conspired 
with  Cleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt,  and  Herod  was  obliged  to 
depose  his  highpriest  and  appoint  Aristobul  III.  in  his 
stead.  When  on  the  first  day  of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles 
(36  B.  c.)  the  youthful  Asmonean  appeared  at  the  altar  in 
the  sacerdotal  robes,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  multitude 
broke  forth  in  loud  and  imprudent  demonstrations.  Herod 
apprehended  danger.  He  could  not  depose  him,  because 
the  young  man's  beauty  and  lawful  claims  might  have 
moved  even  Marc  Antony  in  his  favor.  Herod  kept  Alex- 
andra closely  watched  in  his  palace.  She,  nevertheless, 
found  opportunities  to  communicate  with  Cleopatra,  and 
was  advised  to  come  with  her  son  to  Egypt,  to  lay  her 
grievances  before  Antony.  Preparations  were  made  to 
carry  the  mother  and  son  out  of  Jerusalem  in  two  coffins. 
This  was  betrayed,  the  coffins  captured  and  brought  before 
Herod,  and  when  opened,  Alexandra  and  her  son  stood  be- 
fore the  king.  The  defense  of  Alexandra,  confirmed  by  her 
tears,  was  received  by  Herod  in  good  grace,  although  the 
doom  of  her  son  was  sealed.  He  pardoned  them  and 
treated  them  well.  However,  shortly  after  that,  Alexandra 
entertained  the  king  and  his  courtiers  at  Jericho.  The 
highpriest  was  among  the  guests.  In  the  afternoon  the 
young  men  went  out  to  bathe  in  a  fish-pond,  the  highpriest 
was  among  them,  and,  as  Herod  had  arrar  ged  it,  he  was 
drowned  by  his  companions.  So  perished  Aristobul  III., 
not  quite  eighteen  years  old.  The  lamentation  of  the 
family  was  profound ;  but  Herod  feigned  to  be  the  most 
afflicted  of  all,  he  shed  tears  and  broke  forth  in  loud 
lamentations  over  the  irreparable  loss.  A  magnificent 
funeral,  with  royal  pomp,  covered  the  villainy  of  the  king ; 
but  Alexandra  communicated  the  facts  to  Cleopatra,  and 
she  caused  Marc  Antony  to  take  cognizance  of  the  foul 
assassination,  Antony's  legions  had  been  defeated  by  the 
Parthians,  and  he  was  obliged  to  join  them  in  Syria;  when 
he  was  before  Laoclicea.  Herod  was  summoned  to  ajjpear 
and  defend  himself. 

5.     Mariamne's  Affection  Alienated. 

Guilty  before  his  own  conscience,  Herod  prepared  (35 
B.  c.)  for  the  possibilit}^  of  a  just  punishment,  which  was 


HEROD  AND  HILLEL.  211 

death.  He  appointed  his  uncle,  Joseph,  regent  in  his 
absence,  with  the  particular  charge  to  slay  Marianme  if 
Antony  should  slay  him.  Joseph  betrayed  this  secret  to 
the  queen  and  her  mother,  who  were  amazed  at  the  dis- 
covery. The  honeymoon  was  passed,  Aristobul's  death  and 
this  horrid  charge  could  only  fill  the  queen's  heart  with 
hatred  and  contempt  for  her  husband.  The  ladies  were 
watched  by  the  king's  sister,  Salome,  who  discovered  their 
intimacy  with  Joseph,  and  the  change  in  Mariamne's  con- 
duct. A  rumor  being  sj^read  in  Jerusalem  that  Herod  was 
tortured  and  slain  by  Antony,  Alexandra  desired  Joseph 
to  send  them  to  the  Roman  camp  outside  of  the  city,  to 
which  he  was  not  unwilling  to  give  his  consent ;  and  this 
was  also  known  to  Salome  (10).  Meanwhile,  letters  from 
Herod  arrived,  informing  the  queen  how  well  his  gifts, 
adulation  and  plea  were  received  by  Antony,  notwithstand- 
ing Cleopatra's  hatred ;  and  that  Antony's  decision  was  : 
"  It  was  not  good  to  require  an  account  of  a  king  as  to  the 
affairs  of  his  government ;  for  at  this  rate  he  could  be  no 
king  at  all,  but  that  those  who  had  given  him  that  authority 
ought  to  permit  him  to  make  use  of  it"  (11) ;  furthermore, 
how  Antony  honored  and  distinguished  him.  Shortly  after 
Herod  returned  to  Jerusalem  and  was  informed  by  his 
mother  and  sister  of  their  suspicion.  His  sister  accused 
Marianme  of  criminal  intercourse  with  Joseph.  Being 
treated  by  the  queen  with  cold  indifference,  and  learning 
that  she  knew  his  secret  orders  to  Joseph,  Herod's  jealousy 
and  anger  were  roused  to  fury.  He  was  at  the  point  of 
killing  her,  and  had  Joseph  executed  without  a  hearing. 
His  domestic  happiness  was  gone  forever.  He  loved 
M.ariamne  passionately,  and  she  hated  him  no  less,  and  her 
mother  fully  sympathized  with  her.  On  the  other  side, 
there  were  Herod's  mother  and  sister  with  their  deadh^ 
hatred  to  the  Asmoneans,  and  unshaken  fidelity  to  Herod, 
incessantly  planning  intrigues  and  poisoning  the  king's, 
mind  with  malicious  gossip. 

6.     Cleopatra  Receives  Jericho. 

Cleopatra's  friendship  for  Alexandra  was  not  disinter- 
ested. She  intended  to  get  possession  of  Palestine.  This 
failing,  she  obtained  of  Antony  all  the  cities  on  the  Medi- 
terranean, except  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  also  Jericho,  with  its- 


(10)  Antiq.  XV.,  iii.  9. 

(11)  Ibid.  Sec.  8.     These  last  words  refer  distinctly  to  the  com- 
promise laws  mentioned  in  our  Section  2  of  this  chapter. 


212  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

balm  plantations  (12).  Still,  when  returning  from  Syria, 
whither  she  had  accompanied  Antony  on  his  way  to  Ar- 
menia, she  was  in  Herod's  power,  he  did  not  dare  to  kill 
her,  and  agreed  to  farm  for  her  Jericho  and  her  Arabian 
dominions,  which  proved  a  snare  to  cunning  Herod,  laid 
for  him  by  a  still  more  cunning  woman. 

7.     War  with  Arabia. 

Returning  now  to  Herod,  we  find  him  in  time  of  peace 
collecting  men  and  money  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  the 
threatened  rupture  between  Antony  and  Augustus.  Cleo- 
patra, however,  had  laid  a  snare  for  him.  The  King  of  Ara- 
bia did  not  pay  the  imposed  tribute.  For  some  time  Herod 
paid  it  for  him,  but  then  he  informed  Antony  of  that  king's 
shortcomings.  Cleopatra,  hoping  to  become  mistress  of 
either  Arabia  or  Judea  by  a  war  between  the  two  kings, 
persuaded  Antony  to  reject  Herod's  support,  and  to  com- 
mand him  to  invade  Arabia,  which  was  done,  and  Herod, 
with  his  usual  good  fortune,  was  not  engaged  in  the  battle 
of  Actium.  However,  serious  misfortunes  were  in  store  for 
him  at  home.  He  invaded  the  Arabian  territory  and  de- 
feated the  Arabs  at  Diosopolis.  When  at  the  point  of  de- 
feating them  a  second  time  in  the  battle  of  Cana,  Athenio, 
the  commander  of  Cleopatra's  corps,  unexpectedly  turned 
against  him,  and  he  was  routed.  This  raised  the  spirit  of 
the  defeated  Arabs ;  they  rallied  and  fought  Herod  with 
success,  took  his  camp,  slew  many  of  his  men,  and -forced 
him  to  retreat  to  the  mountains,  and  then  back  to  Jeru- 
salem. At  the  same  time  the  whole  countr}^  was  shaken 
by  an  earthquake,  in  which  about  ten  thousand  persons  and 
a  large  number  of  cattle  perished.  The  accounts  of  this 
event  being  exaggerated  and  embassadors  having  been  sent 
to  them  by  Herod  to  make  peace,  the  Arabs  presumed  it 
was  easy  now  to  take  the  whole  country.  Therefore,  they 
slew  the  embassadors  and  invaded  Galilee.  The  Hebrews 
were  discouraged.  The  earthquake  was  taken  to  be  an  in- 
dication of  God's  anger  against  his  people.  Some  believed 
the  Avhole  Avar  unjust.  It  was  waged  on  the  Arabs  because 
they  refused  to  pay  a  tribute  to  a  foreign  power.  Herod 
addressed  his  men  assemljlod  in  Jerusalem  (13).  He  spoke 
like  a  bold  warrior  and  prudent  statesman,  full  of  religious 
sentiment  and  patriotic  feeling.     Most  remarkable  in  that 

(12)  Ibid.  Chap.  iv. 

(13)  Antiquities  xv.,  v.  3.  undoubtedly  taken  from  Herod's  own 
Commentaries. 


i 


HEROD   AND    HILLEL.  213 

speech,  perhaps,  is  the  statement,  "  Although  it  was  not 
reasonable  that  Jews  should  pay  tribute  to  any  man  living," 
etc.,  showing  the  position  which  he  apparently  occupied 
between  his  people  and  the  Romans.  \V  hen  the  sacrifices 
had  been  made  in  the  temple,  Herod  marched  with  his  army 
across  the  Jordan  to  meet  the  Arabs.  He  met  and  defeated 
them  in  several  battles ;  seven  thousand  of  them  fell.  The 
survivors  at  last  were  besieged  in  their  own  strongholds, 
and  forced  to  surrender.  The  Arabs  appointed  Herod  tbeir 
governor,  and  he  was  made  lord  of  the  very  country  which 
liad  threatened  his  destruction. 

8.     Hyrcan's  Death — Herod's  Departure  to  Meet 

Augustus. 

This  victory  and  conquest  gained  Herod  many  friends 
and  admirers,  and  made  him  so  much  more  formidable  to 
his  enemies.  Still  his  misfortunes  were  not  all  over. 
Meanwhile,  Antony  had  been  defeated  by  Augustus.  This  af- 
forded the  advantage  to  Herod,  in  that  the  surviving  Asmo- 
neans  had  no  succor  to  expect  from  abroad  ;  but  it  also  put  his 
crown  in  jeopardy,  because  he  was  the  friend  and  supporter 
of  Antony  to  the  last,  and  was  now  exposed  to  the  mercy 
of  Augustus.  His  friends  trembled  at  coming  events,  and 
his  enemies  rejoiced  over  the  probability  of  a  change.  Fear- 
ing the  latter  might  take  advantage  of  the  situation  and 
proclaim  the  hoary  Hyrcan  king,  Herod,  improving  the 
moment  of  his  popularity,  resorted  to  falsehood  and  forgery, 
produced  a  letter  ol  Hyrcan  to  INIalchus,  the  King  of  Ara- 
bia, written  at  the  time  that  enemy  liad  the  advantage  over 
Herod,  in  which  Hyrcan  proposed  to  leave  Jerusalem  and 
seek  refuge  with  the  King  of  Arabia.  The  letter  was  deliv- 
ered to  Herod  by  Dositheus,  the  confidant  of  Hyrcan. 
Alexandra  was  also  implicated  in  the  treacherous  plot. 
The  document  was  shown  to  the  Sanhedrin,  and  must  have 
called  forth  bitter  indignation  against  Hyrcan  from  those 
who  believed  in  its  authenticity.  But  it  was  a  forgery. 
Herod  had  cunningly  appealed  to  prevailing  feelings,  and, 
without  trial  or  ceremony,  the  hoary  Hyrcan,  who  had  been 
his  and  his  father's  benefactor,  and  had  elevated  them  to  th'^ 
highest  positions,  was  slain  (14).  Neither  the  Sanhedrin 
nor  the  people  had  the  right  to  interfere  in  this  case,  as 
Hyrcan  stood  accused    of   high    treason   (15).      With  the 


(14)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xv.,  vi.  2  and  3. 

(15)  See  Section  2,  Point  2d,  of  this  chapter. 


214  HEROD   AND   HILLEL. 

blood  of  two  highpriests  and  his  own  uncle  on  his  conscience, 
Herod  made  preparations  to  meet  Augustus  and  his  own 
fate.  He  appointed  his  brother,  Pheroras,  regent  in  his 
absence,  sent  his  mother  and  sister  to  Massada,  his  wife, 
Mariamne,  and  her  mother,  Alexandra,  to  Alexandrium, 
placed  this  castle  under  the  command  of  his  treasurer, 
Joseph,  and  Sohemus,  of  Iturea,  and  commanded  them  to 
kill  both  of  them  in  case  any  mischief  should  befall  him ; 
then  he  started  for  Rhodes  (30  b.  c). 

9.      HiLLEL   AND   MeNAHEM    ElEVATED   TO   THE    PRESIDENCY 

Over  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  Pharisean  savants  seized  upon  this  opportunity  to 
depose  the  Bethyra  rulers  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  to  elevate 
Hillel  and  Menahem  to  the  presidency  thereof.  It  was  in 
the  year  30  b.  c,  the  first  day  of  the  Passover  being  on 
Sunday,  the  question  arose  as  to  the  time  when  the  paschal 
lambs  should  be  slaughtered,  which  the  Bethyra  senators 
either  did  not  know,  or,  what  is  more  likely,  they  could 
give  no  reasons  why  the  Sabbath  might  be  profaned  on  ac- 
count of  that  sacrifice.  As  Simon  b.  Shetach  had  done  in 
the  days  of  Alexander  Jannai  to  the  Sadducean  senators,  so 
the  Pharisees  did  now  to  the  Bethyrians  :  they  forced  them 
to  resign.  The  elevation  of  Hillel  and  Menahem  was  an- 
other compromise  with  Herod.  Menahem,  the  Essene, 
was  the  king's  favorite  (16),  and  Hillel  was  too  meek  and 
humane  a  man,  a  Babylonian  without  family  connections  in 
Palestine,  to  become  formidable  to  Herod.  Menahem  held 
that  position  only  a  short  time.  He  and  his  disciples  were 
appointed  to  executive  offices  by  the  king  (17).  He  was 
succeeded  by  another  ftivorite  of  Herod,  Shammai  or  Sameas, 
the  disciple  of  Abtalion  (18).  These  two  men  presided 
over  tlie  Sanhedrin,  Hillel  as  JVassi,  and  Shammai  as 
Ah-£eth-Din,  to  a  time  after  the  death  of  Herod.  Hillel 
outlived  Shammai  (19),  and,  according  to  the  Talmud,  pre- 
sided forty  years.  These  two  men  opened  a  new  period  in 
the  history  of  literature  and  religion,  and  became  the 
founders  of  two  schools  called  Beth  Hillel  and  Beth 
Shammai,    with    whom    begins    the    scholastic   rabbinical 

(16)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xv.,  x.  5.  Menahem  was  considered  a 
prophet.  Like  Socrates  to  Alcibiades,  he  prophesied  the  crown  to 
the  boy  Herod. 

(17)  Hagitra  16  a  and  6. 

(18)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xv.,  i.  1. 

(19)  Bezah20n;  Hillel  in  Bruell's  Mebo  Hamishnah. 


I 


HEROD  AND  HILLEL.  215 

period,  the  source  of  rabbinical  Judaism  with  its  vast 
Talmudical  literature,  and  of  primitive  Christianity  with 
its  New  Testament  Scriptures.  Therefore,  it  is  necessary  to 
give  some  account  of  Hillel  and  Shammai. 

10.     Hillel's  Origin. 

Hillel  became  the  ancestor  of  a  line  of  princes  of  the 
mind,  whose  influence  on  the  Hebrews  to  the  fifth  century, 
A.  c,  and,  through  them,  on  the  civilized  world,  was  very 
important.  Yet  we  know  nothing  of  his  youth.  He  was  by 
birth  a  Babylonian  Hebrew  (20),  and  a  descendant  of  King 
David,  by  one  of  his  daughters  (21).  He  came  to  Jeru- 
salem to  study  the  Law  under  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion  (22), 
and  did  so  consistently,  although  lie  was  very  poor  (23). 
Afterward  his  brother,  Shabna,  who  was  a  merchant,  sup- 
ported him  (24),  and  he  became  a  great  teacher  in  Israel. 
He  went  back  to  Babylonia  and  then  returned  to  Palestine 
(25).  as  posterity  said  of  him  :  "  When  the  Law  was  being 
forgotten  in  Israel,  Hillel,  the  Babylonian,  came  up  and  re- 
established it"  {Succah  20),  after  the  death  of  Shemaiah. 
In  Palestine,  he  had  eighty  disciples,  among  whom  Jona- 
than b.  Uziel  was  most  prominent,  and  Jochanan  b.  Saccai 
least,  although  the  latter  mastered  all  the  learning  of  his 
age  {SuGoah  28  a).  Jericho,  for  centuries  a  priestly  center, 
was  now  under  the  protection  of  Cleopatra,  hence,  not 
under  the  exclusive  control  of  Herod.  The  men  of  learn- 
ing met  at  Jericho  and  devised  means  to  better  the  public 
affairs.  They  met  in  the  hall  of  Ben  Gorion.  INIost  promi- 
nent among  them  was  Hillel,  the  meek  Babylonian,  distin- 
guished no  less  for  profound  learning  than  humility  and 
humanity.  One  day,  while  the  savants  were  assembled  in 
that  hall,  so  the  rabbis  maintain  (26),  the  Bath-Kol  an- 
nounced to  them  that  there  was  one  among  them  worthy  to 
receive  the  Shekinah,  as  did  Moses  of  yore,  only  that  his 
generation  was  unworthy  thereof;  and  all  turned  their  eyes 
upon  Hillel.  This  signifies,  in  modern  phraseology,  that  he 
was  looked  upon  as  the  greatest  man  of  his  age,  worthy  to 


(20)  Pesachmi  66  a. 

(21)  Sanhedrinb  a;  Horioth  11  6;  Sabbath  56  a;  Bereshith  Rabba  98 
*inD   ^^n  ;  Yerushalmi  Taanith  II. ;  Seder  Hodqroth  Art.  Hillel. 

(22)  Pesachim,  Ibid. 

(23)  Joma  34. 

(24)  Sotah  21. 

(25)  Mebo  Ilamishnah  p.  34 

(26)  Sanhedrin  11.    DH'^y  njnji  inn'n  xmj  n^n  n^pyn   *    *    * 
«tc,  D-'Dtrn  p  h'\\>  ni. 


216  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

be  the  Nassi  of  the  Sanhedrin ;  and  his  generation  stood 
in  need  of  reforms. 

11,     HiLLEL  AS  A  Teacher. 

With  Hillel  begins  the  humanitarian  and  logical  school 
in  Palestine,  and  he  was  its  founder.  The  Hebrew  mind 
had  already  been  turned  to  the  Derashah,  by  Shemaiah 
and  Abtalion,  i.  e.,  to  discover  all  the  truth  embodied  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  traditions  and  history,  and  to  find  the 
Scriptural  basis  for  the  various  laws,  customs,  doctrines 
and  maxims  handed  down  traditionally  by  the  fathers. 
The  first  difficulty  was  to  master  the  traditional  matter 
which  was  too  vast  and  unsystematical  to  be  retained.  It 
was  preserved  partly  in  the  protocols  of  the  Sanhedrin 
and  partly  in  the  private  scrolls  of  teachers  (onno  n^Ji'.:i)> 
grouped,  perhaps,  about  Bible  passages,  from  which  it  was 
respectively  derived,  as  is  yet  the  case  in  the  books  Me- 
CHiLTA,  Saphra  and  Siphri  ;  but  it  was  chiefly  retained  by 
the  memory  of  the  scribes.  Hillel  began  the  work  of  codi- 
fication. He  laid  down  the  outlines  of  the  code,  as  accom- 
plished two  hundred  years  later  in  the  Six  Orders  of  the 
MiSHNAH.  He  began  the  construction  of  general  laws  or 
paragraphs  from  a  number  of  particular  decisions  and 
opinions  in  the  syllabus  form,  called  Halachah  Peshutah, 
"  an  abstract  law,"  or  Mishnah,  ''  a  theorem,"  to  serve  as 
mementoes  to  the  traditional  matter  and  the  groundwork, 
to  systematical  codification  (27).  Whether  and  how  any 
law,  custom,  doctrine  or  general  principle  was  based  upon 
the  Bible,  was  a  main  question  with  the  learned.  There- 
fore, Hillel  formulated  the  hermeneutics  of  the  fathers  in 
seven  rules  of  interpretation  (28),  to  be  the  touchstone  for 
the  existing  material,  and  the  guide  for  future  interpreta- 
tion.    So  he  became  the  founder  of  the  logical  school. 

12.     The  Humanitarian  School. 

With  the  death  of  Hyrcan  II.  the  third  phase  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  closed.  The  first  phase,  with  the 
proi)het  as  the  visible  head  of  the  Kingdom,  closed  with  the 
prophet  Samuel.  The  second  phase,  with  a  Davidian  prince 
at  its  head,  closed  Avith  Nehemiah.  The  third  phase,  with 
the  highpriest  at  its  head,  closed  with  Hyrcan  II.  Herod 
represented   a   foreign  power.      Now  the  fourth  phase,   to- 

(27)  Sed.  Haddoroth  Art.  Hillel. 

(28)  Yerushalmi  Pesachim  vi.  1.     Tosephta  iv.     Babli  Ibid.  66  a^ 


HEROD   AND   HILLEL.  217 

which  Ezra  had  already  laid  the  foundation,  asserted  itself 
in  the  minds  of  the  people,  viz.,  the  Law  governs  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  its  legitimate  expounders  are  the 
highest  authority  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  Pharisean 
doctrine,  with  the  religious  idea  to  lead,  and  the  political 
one  to  be  secondary,  gained  the  ascendancy.'  So  it  mattered 
not  whether  Herod  or  another  person  collected  the  taxes 
and  fought  the  battles.  But  witliin  the  Law  as  man's 
sovereign  guide,  the  question  arose,  Which  is  most  import- 
ant, its  ritual  or  its  humanitarian  contents?  Hillel  preferred 
the  latter.  He  maintained  that  the  object  of  law  is  peace 
and  good  will ;  therefore,  the  principal  law  is,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  which  he  expressed  in  the 
negative  form,  "Whatever  would  hurt  thee  thou  shalt  do 
to  none,"  and  added  thereto  the  most  exj^ressive  words,. 
"  This  is  the  principal,  the  rest  (of  the  Law)  is  its  com- 
mentary;  go  and  finish"  {Sahhath  31  a).  It  is  man's  duty 
to  overcome  selfishness,  to  increase  his  knowledge,  to  guard, 
against  vanity  and  haughtiness,  and  to  use  well  his  time  in 
perpetual  self-improvement  { Ahoth  i.  13,  14).  He  admon- 
ished his  disciples  not  to  seclude  themselves  from  the  cdm- 
munity  on  account  of  Herod's  government  or  the  imagined 
wickedness  of  the  world ;  not  to  place  too  much  reliance  in 
one's  own  virtue  and  piety  before  the  very  day  of  death  ;  to 
condemn  none  before  one  has  placed  himself  in  the  situation 
of  the  supposed  sinner;  and  to  speak  clearly  and  intelligibly, 
not  in  dubious  or  deceptive  language  (Ibid  ii.  4).  He  gave 
prominence  to  the  ethical  and  humane  contents  of  the 
Books  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets  as  the  eternal  element, 
without  opposition  to  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  customs 
of  the  people  ;  and  did  so  in  practical  life  both  as  a  private 
man  and  as  Nassi  (29).  Tlierefore,  he  made  many  prose- 
lytes by  mild  suasion,  without  any  attempt  at  miraculous 
or  mystic  practices  and  words,  was  venerated  as  a  saint,  and 
called  by  posterity  a  disciple  of  Ezra. 

13.     Hillel's  Legislation. 

The  Hillel  Sanhedrin  must  have  enacted  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  appointed  high  priests  (30),  as  after  the  death  of 
Hillel,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years  under  Agrippa  I. 
and  from  67  to  69  b.  c,  no  Sanhedrin  existed ;  and  the 
Pharisean  customs  ruled  at  the  temple,  and  were  cautiously 


(29)  Sabbath  30  h  and  31  a  ;    Kethnhoth  67  h. 

(30)  Yoma  I ;  Sanhedrin  II.,  and  the  like. 


218  HEROD   AND   HILLEL. 

practiced  also  by  Sadducean  highpriests  (31).  To  this  cate- 
gory must  be  counted  the  games  during  the  Feast  of 
Booths  (naNiCJTi  rr'a  nrratr)  (32).  These  games  in  the 
Court  of  Women,  performed  daily,  except  the  first  day  of 
the  feast,  after  the  close  of  the  evening  sacrifice,  under 
brilliant  illuminations,  music  and  song,  in  which  gymnas- 
tics and  the  artistic  flinging  and  catching  of  knives  and  . 
flambeaux  were  prominent,  all  of  which  being  of  Greek 
origin,  were  introduced  by  Hillel,  he,  at  least,  is  the  first 
man  connected  with  them  in  the  traditions,  as  an  ofi"set  to 
Herod's  introduction  of  the  Greek  games  in  Jerusalem,  and 
became  very  j^opular  among  all  classes.  Legislation  for 
the  temple  led  afterward  to  mortifying  difficulties  raised  by 
the  Shammaites  against  Hillel  (33).  Vowing  animals  and 
things,  or  their  value,  to  the  sanctuary  having  become  too 
frequent,  Hillel  legislated  against  it,  and  it  was  established 
that  none  must  vow  anything  to  the  sanctuary  {Korhan)  (34), 
except  at  the  sanctuary,  where  the  vow  was  to  be  fulfilled 
at  once  (35).  In  regard  to  commerce  two  laws  of  Hillel  are 
recorded :  First,  the  Prosbole,  protecting  creditors  by  a 
legal  instrument  against  the  forfeiture  of  a  debt  in  the 
Sabbath  year,  as  prescribed  in  Deuter.  xvi.  (36) ;  and 
the  second,  amending  Leviticus  xxv.  29,  if  one  having 
sold  a  house  in  a  city,  and  after  a  year,  as  was  his  right, 
wished  to  return  the  purchase-money  and  reclaim  his 
property,  but  the  purchaser  could  not  be  found,  that  the 
money  be  deposited  with  the  legal  authorities  and  the  con- 
tract annulled  (37).  The  Courts  kept  records  of  all  titles 
and  mortgages.  A  Sabbath  law  was  also  enacted  by 
Hillel.  There  was  a  dispute  pending,  whether  apparent 
labor  {t\\2^)  was  prohibited  on  the  Sabbath,  and  Hillel  de- 
cided it  was  not,  and  so  it  was  held  after  him  in  regard  to 
the  temple  (jj^npon  ni3cy  ;\s) ;  although  outside  thereof  four 
such  apparent  labors  were  prohibited  on  Sabbath  and  holi- 
days, viz.,  to  climb  a  tree,  to  ride  an  animal,  to  swim  or  to 
make    a  noise  by   dancing,    striking   or   hand-clapping  in 

(31)  Yoma  19  h  'K  -pn^^n  nC'VO- 

(32)  Succah  iv.  and  Talmud  ibid.  53  a. 

(33)  TosEPHTA  Hagigah  II.  closing  passage  and  paral.  passage. 

(34)  Marc  vii.,  ii.     Nedarim  25. 

(35)  Nedarim  9  b. 

(36)  Guitin  36  a. 

(37)  ErechinSlb.  There  is  also  recorded  that  Hillel  eptablished 
the  law  that  bills  of  divorce  to  be  legal  must  have  the  consent  of  the 
woman  to  be  divorced. 


1 


HEROD  AND  HILLEL.  219 

hilarious  amusements  (38).  In  regard  to  the  ordination  of 
judges  and  senators  (na^no)  the  custom  prevailed  that 
qualified  judges,  teachers  and  senators  in  a  Court  of  three 
could  qualify  others,  who  were  then  authorized  judges  and 
teachers,  eligible  to  the  said  offices  and  qualified  to  ad- 
vance from  Court  to  Court  up  to  the  Sanhedrin  (39).  But 
in  the  days  of  Hillel  it  was  established  that  such  ordina- 
tion could  be  bestowed  only  by  the  Nassi,  or  a  person  duly 
authorized  by  him,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Ah- Beth- 
Din  (40).  Physicians,  however,  could  be  licensed  by  the 
Court  of  their  respective  homes.  One  more  institution  of 
Hillel  must  be  noticed ;  he  gave  legal  force  to  documents 
informally  written  by  laymen,  and  sanctioned  the  vulgar 
dialect  in  legal  documents  as  well  as  in  public  teaching 
(41),  which,  up  to  his  days,  had  to  be  done  in  Hebrew. 
Therefore,  this  was  the  time  when  the  Methurgam,  "  the 
translator,"  was  introduced  in  the  synagogue  to  translate  into 
the  popular  dialect  the  passage  read  from  the  Law,  and 
Hillel's  disciple,  Jonathan  b.  Uziel,  furnished  a  Syriac 
translation  of  the  Prophets,  and  an  anonymous  scribe  fur- 
nished a  Syriac  translation  of  the  Law  to  assist  the  public 
translators  (42).  During  the  life-time  of  Hillel  the  de- 
cisions and  enactments  of  the  Sanhedrin  were  called  after 
him,  as  he  was  the  Nassi,  and  but  a  few  differences  between 
him  and  Shammai  remained  undecided.  Not  because 
Hillel  had  said  so,  but  because  the  Sanhedrin  established  it 
so,  it  was  a  law.  Some  of  Hillel's  Hnlachnth  were  also  re- 
jected by  his  Sanhedrin  (MiSHNAH  ^a&a  il/gs^«v.  9)  (43). 

(38)  Baha  Mezm  i.  6. 

(39)  Hagigah  ii.  2,  Yerushalmi  ibid.,  and  Tosephta  ibid.  Bezah 
y.  2.     All  other  additional  Sabbath  laws  (nn".^)  are  of  a  later  origin. 

(40)  Sanhedrin  82  b ;  Tosephta  Shekalim  end,  and  Hwjigah  ii. 

(41)  Maimonides  in  Sanhedrin  iv.  5.  Baba  Mezia  104  a;  Aboth 
i.  13. 

(42)  The  translations  mentioned  must,  of  course,  have  been 
Syriac  and  not  Aramaic.  The  original  translations  must  be  sought  in 
the  Peshito,  of  which  the  Onkelos  and  Jonathan  Turgumrm  to 
Pentateuch  and  Prophets  are  later  transcripts  made  for  the  Baby- 
lonian Jews  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  century.  The  tradition 
that  O.vKELos  translated  the  Pentateuch  in  Hillel's  time  is  old,  and  lias 
found  its  way  into  Seder  Had-doroth  (See  Hillel  Huzakan),  and  to 
Azariah  De  Ras.si's  Mear  Enai/nn.  The  word  Onkelos  need  not  be  a 
corruption    of  Aquila    or    Aquilas.     It    may  have  originally  been 

^yt:hp'^^  {Baba  Bathra  0)%  b  and  Tosephta  III.),  which  signifies  "a 
writer,"  or  Onmklos  (21L3  DK*),  which  signifies  "an  anonymous  person 
of  a  good  name,"  in  either  case  the  Mem  is  dropped. 

(43)  Tosephta  Hagigah  end  of  II. ;  Edioth  I.  and  Sabbath  15  a.  See 
Mebo  Hamishnah. 


220  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

After  the  death  of  Hillel  the  difficulties  of  the  two  schools 
had  their  beginning. 

14.     Shammai  as  a  Teacher. 

After  the  return  of  Herod,  Menahem  was  replaced  by 
Shammai,  of  whose  youth  nothing  is  known  except  that  he 
was  a  disciple  of  Abtalion  and  a  supporter  of  Herod.  He 
was  a  representative  of  the  inflexible,  rigid  and  thorough- 
going Pharisees.  He  held  to  his  master's  maxim,  "Let  the 
Law  penetrate  the  mountain  "  (44),  and  so,  in  his  expound- 
ing the  Law,  he  went  to  the  extreme  logical  sequences  (45) 
of  the  written  Law  and  the  hermeneutic  principle  applied. 
He  held  in  his  hand  the  twenty-four  inch  gauge  (pjin  nox) 
like  a  scepter,  as  the  insignium  of  strict  justice  and  his 
position  among  the  highest  of  the  Bo7iim,  or  Haherim  (46). 
In  regard  to  the  acceptance  of  j^roselytes,  he  was  no  less 
rigid  than  in  other  points,  and  went  to  the  extreme  in  the 
laws  on  Levitical  cleanness  (47).  Although  he  was  high- 
tempered  and  prone  to  anger,  he  advanced  this  maxim  : 
"  Make  thy  (study  and  practice  of)  Law  a  fixed  matter,  say 
little  and  do  much,  and  receive  every  man  with  a  friendly 
countenance  "  (48).  Shammai  was  of  the  opinion  that  the 
Law,  strictly  and  logically  expounded  and  rigidly  enforced, 
was  the  only  source  of  salvation,  especially  in  his  time,  and 
insisted  upon  the  literal  application  of  every  Law  of  Moses 
exactly  as  the  terms  of  the  Pentateuch  suggest  (49). 

15.     Hillel  and  Herod. 

In  temperament,  Hillel  was  the  direct  opposite  not  only 
of  Shammai,  but  also  of  Herod.  The  latter  was  impetuous^ 
ambitious,  high-tempered  and  haughty,  while  Hillel  was  so 
gentle  that  nothing  roused  his  temper  (50),  so  placid  that 
men's  whims  never  disturbed  him  (51),  so  meek,  humble 
and  pliable,  that  he  rather  yielded  to  antagonists  than  mor- 
tified them  (52).  Herod's  ambition  engendered  in  him  that 
ever-vigilant  suspicion  which  led  him  from  crime  to  crime ; 

(44)  S'lnhedrin  6  b. 

(45)  ToREPKTA,  Erubin  III.  and  Babli  Sabbath  19  a.     nm"l  IV- 

(46)  TosKi'MTA  Demni  II. 

(47)  Kelliii  xxii.  4;  E'iioth  i.  7  and  11. 

(48)  Aboth  i.  15. 

(49)  Yoma  77  ;  Succah  21 ;   Yebamoth  15  ;  Nazir  23. 

(50)  Sabbalh  31  and  32. 

(51)  Sabbnth  ibid. 

(52)  Erubin  13. 


HEROD   AND   HILLEL,  221 

Mhile  Hillel's  meekness  made  him  extremely  confiding  in 
Ood  and  man  (53).  Hillel's  ambition  was  learning  for  the 
benefit  of  his  fellow-men,  and  Herod's  ambition  was  to  ac- 
quire power  and  glory  (54).  Therefore,  Herod  was  under 
the  dire  necessity  of  grasping  large  sums  of  money  from 
the  people's  wealth,  and  Hillel,  always  content,  stood  in 
need  of  nothing  (55),  and  yet  could  always  aflbrd  to  be  un- 
commonly charitable  (56).  Herod  represents  the  animal 
intellect  and  Hillel  the  purest  ethical  intelligence.  They 
were  natural  evolutions  of  two  parties  among  the  Hebrews. 
Herod  was  the  product  of  the  party  of  war,  conquest,  mili- 
tary glory  and  dominion;  and  Hillel  was  an  off"spring  of 
the  Law,  the  party  of  the  historical  mission  to  the  nations, 
whose  sole  object  was  Monotheism,  justice,  charity  and  in- 
telligence, the  preservation,  exposition  and  promulgation 
of  the  Law. 

16.     Herod's  Return. 

All  the  reforms  mentioned  in  the  previous  sections  were 
efiected  in  the  reign  of  Herod.  He  returned  to  Jerusalem 
confirmed  in  his  dignity  and  power,  his  possessions  en- 
larged by  the  cities  of  Gadara,  Hippos,  Samaria,  Gaza,  An- 
thedon  and  Joppa,  and  with  Cleopatra's  body-guard,  pre- 
sented him  by  Augustus.  His  friends  rejoiced,  his  enemies 
were  silenced.  He  accepted  the  changes  made  by  the  Phar- 
isees, appointed  the  Essenean  Menaliem  and  his  disciples 
to  high  executive  offices ;  and  Shammai  was  placed,  with 
Hillel,  at  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin,  so  that,  apparently,  all 
parties  were  satisfied.  In  the  temple,  too,  it  appears,  he 
made  a  compromise  with  the  Pharisees.  After  the  death  of 
Aristobul  III.,  he  reappointed  Ananelus  to  the  high  priest- 
hood, but  removed  him  from  office,  and  appointed  in  his 
place  Joshua  (Jesus),  a  son  of  Fabus,  and  this  was  a  Phar- 
isean  family  of  distinction.  So  Herod  opened  the  second 
period  of  his  government  evidently  with  the  intention  to 
become  just  and  give  satisfaction  to  his  people. 

17.     Death  of  Mariamne. 

Mariamne  made  no  secret  of  her  hatred  to  her  husband, 
for  Sohemus  had  divulged  to  her  the  secret  orders  of  Herod 

(53)  Bprnchoth  60  a. 

(54)  Ahoth  i.  12,  13,  14. 

(55)  Bezah  16. 

(56)  Kethuboth  67  h. 


222  HEROD   AND   HILLEL. 

Avhen  he  had  left  her  and  her  mother  prisoners  at  Alexan- 
driuni.  His  love,  however,  was  as  violent  as  her  hatred. 
The  king's  sister  and  his  mother  never  ceased  irritating  his- 
wrath  against  his  wife,  and  his  domestic  peace  was  lost  for- 
ever. In  a  fit  of  madness,  to  which  he  was  subject,  Herod 
had  Sohemus  slain,  convoked  his  slavish  courtiers  to  a 
council,  and  the  sentence  of  death  was  passed  on  Mariamne,. 
which  the  king,  under  the  evil  influence  of  his  sister  and 
his  mother,  executed.  Alexandra,  to  save  her  own  life,  re- 
proached and  insulted  her  innocent  daughter  as  she  went 
fortli  to  meet  her  fate.  But  the  last  daughter  of  the  As- 
moneans,  in  greatness  of  soul  and  firmness  of  mind,  equal 
to  her  most  valorous  ancestors,  died  "  without  changing  the 
color  of  her  face"  (Josephus).  Aristobul  II.,  his  sons,. 
Alexander  and  Antigonus,  Hyrcan  II.,  and  their  grand- 
children, Aristobul  III.  and  Mariamne,  rested  now  in  peace  ; 
and  Herod  lived  the  miserable  life  of  a  wretched  criminal  in 
remorse  and  self-contempt  (29  b.  c). 

18.    Death  of  Alexandra  and  Castoborus. 

Shortly  after  Mariamne's  death  a  terrible  pestilence 
broke  out  in  Palestine,  Herod  left  Jerusalem  and  went  to 
Samaria.  Some  of  his  best  friends  died.  Remorse,  violent 
affection  for  his  murdered  wife,  misery  and  superstition 
tormented  and  reduced  him  to  a  raving  skeleton.  Alexan- 
dra, hearing  of  his  critical  condition,  schemed  a  plot  to 
save  the  kingdom  for  Herod's  children,  as  she  said,  and  de- 
manded of  the  respective  commanders  possession  of  several 
fortresses,  which  was  at  once  reported  to  Herod.  He  slowly 
recovered  his  health,  but  never  again  his  temper,  returned 
to  Jerusalem,  and,  without  trial  or  delay,  ordered  the  execu- 
tion of  Alexandra,  and  the  last  head  of  the  Asmoneans  was 
laid  low  (28  b.  c).  Then  Herod  raged  furiously  against  his 
own  friends,  and  slew  also  his  brother-in-law,  Castoborus, 
the  husband  of  Salome,  from  whom  she  had,  contrary  to 
law,  divorced  herself,  and  then  accused,  together  with  other 
friends  of  Herod,  of  plotting  against  him  with  Cleopatra. 
Besides,  Castoborus  had  rescued  tlie  sons  of  Buta,  who  were 
also  of  the  Asmonean  race ;  they  were  now  betrayed  by 
Salome  and  slain  with  Castoborus  (28  b.  c),  except  Baba  b. 
Buta,  who,  being  a  disciple  of  Shammai,  was  spared,  but 
was  deprived  of  his  sight. 

19.     Innovation  and  a  Revolt. 

Having  disposed  of  all  the  Asmoneans,  and  believing 
himself  secure    on   his    throne,  Herod    began    to    imitate 


HEROD   AND    HILLEL.  223 

Menelaus  and  Jason  by  the  introduction  of  foreign  customs 
and  games.  He  built  a  theater  in  the  city  and  an  amphi- 
theater on  the  plain,  and  appointed  solemn  games  every 
fifth  year  in  honor  of  Csesar.  He  promised  royal  prizes  for 
the  victors  in  chariot  races,  in  the  contests  of  gladiators 
and  naked  wrestlers,  beast  fights  and  beastly  combats  of 
condemned  criminals,  and  to  the  best  musicians.  He  dis- 
played Caesar's  trophies  and  inscriptions  of  his  valorous 
deeds,  invited  all  nations  by  proclamation  to  come  to  the 
games,  and  spent  the  people's  money  most  pompously  and 
audaciously.  But  it  all  came  to  nothing;  the  childish  and 
barbarous  ostentation  and  brutality  of  the  Greeks  would 
not  take  root  among  the  Hebrews.  They  were  too  earnest 
and  too  manly  for  it.  The  citizens  of  Jerusalem  rose 
against  the  innovations.  When  they  had  been  pacified  or 
overawed,  ten  men  conspired  against  Herod's  life,  and 
would  have  assassinated  him  in  the  theater,  had  not  one  of 
his  spies  informed  him  in  time,  and  kept  him  out  of  harm's 
reach.  The  conspirators  were  arrested  and  put  to  death, 
but  soon  after  the  spy  was  also  caught  and  torn  to  pieces  by 
the  populace,  which  led  to  the  torture  of  women  and  the 
extermination  of  whole  families  by  the  king,  in  his  bloody 
revenge.  Still  the  Grecian  games  were  suppressed  in  Jeru- 
salem in  spite  of  Herod's  power  and  wealth. 

20.     Herod's  Architecture. 

Unable  to  Romanize  his  people  in  Jerusalem  to  please 
his  mighty  patrons,  Herod  did  it  abroad  at  the  expense  of 
his  people,  and  especially  by  monuments  of  architecture, 
while  at  home  he  gave  to  every  new  structure,  also  to  the 
rooms  in  his  palace,  an  Augustan  name.  Providing  first 
for  his  own  safety,  he  strengthened  the  fortifications  of 
Jerusalem,  built  himself  a  new  palace  at  Acra,  near  its 
northern  wall,  rebuilt  three  northern  towers  of  Zion,  and 
called  them  respectively  Hippicas,  Mariamne  and  Phasael, 
with  another  palace  adjoining  this  latter  tower,  and  en- 
larged the  old  castle  Baris  in  the  north-eastern  corner  of 
Mount  Moriah,  which  he  called  Fort  Antonio.  These  build- 
ings placed  Jerusalem  and  tlie  temple  under  his  control. 
Apprehending  that,  nevertheless,  he  might  one  day  be 
ejected  from  his  capital,  he  provided  for  the  emergency-  He 
rebuilt  and  strongly  fortified  the  city  of  Samaria,  which  he 
called  Sebaste,  and  did  the  same  with  Guba  in  Galilee, 
which  was  the  place  of  rendezvous  for  his  cavalry.  He  also 
enlarged  and  fortified  Strato's  Tower  with  its  harbor,  on  the 


224  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

Mediterranean,  and  called  it  Csesaria.  He  placed  in  all 
those  new  cities  a  large  Heathen  population,  to  rely  upon 
ill  case  the  Hebrews  should  reject  him.  Thus  secured  be- 
hind sti'ong  walls  and  citadels,  commanding  the  respective 
cities,  surrounded  by  a  standing  army  and  a  host  of  vigi- 
lant spies,  he  considered  himself  safe  at  home,  and  feared 
no  attacks  from  abroad  except  from  Rome,  where  Augustus 
and  his  wife  were  his  mighty  patrons.  In  the  erection  of 
all  these  structures,  however,  Herod  was  guided  by  an  ex- 
cellent taste  and  sense  of  the  beautiful.  He  erected  for 
himself  architectural  monuments.  He  also  built  Herod- 
ium,  a  fortress  near  Jerusalem,  Antipatris  on  the  plain,  and 
Castle  Cypros  near  Jericho.  But  he  spent  much  more 
money  in  foreign  countries  in  the  erection  of  'architectural 
monuments,  water-works,  fountains,  parks,  groves  and  ar- 
cades, and  encouraging  the  Olympian  games,  wliich  made 
him  famous  among  foreigners  for  taste  and  munificence, 
although  his  people  had  to  pay  oppressive  taxes  and  de- 
rived no  benefit  from  the  vast  sums  squandered  in  foreign 
lands.  Syrians  and  Greeks  praised  him  as  a  benefactor, 
and  Augustus  said  of  him,  that  he  was  worthy  to  wear  the 
crown  of  Syria  and  Egypt.  He  gave  no  little  oftense  to  his 
people  by  the  erection  of  Heathen  temples  in  Palestine  and 
outside  thereof,  while  Hebrew  soldiers  under  Alexander  the 
Great,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  refused  to  assist  in  the  re- 
building of  a  Baal  Temple.  To  please  and  appease  the 
Hebrews,  Herod  also  rebuilt  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
grandest  style,  as  we  shall  narrate  further  on. 

21.     The  Famine. 

While  Herod  was  thus  engaged  in  squandering  the  peo- 
ple's money  (24  b.  c),  a  prevailing  drought  destroyed  the 
fruit,  and  a  distressing  fiimine  prostrated  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  swept  away  many  victims.  The  public  treasury 
was  exhausted  and  Herod  was  obliged  to  sell  all  the  silver 
and  gold  vessels  he  possessed  to  purchase  grain  in  Egypt 
for  his  starving  people.  He  did  it  most  munificently  and 
also  assisted  the  Syrians,  who  suffered  by  the  same  calam- 
ity. This  benefaction,  says  Josephus,  wiped  out  the  old 
hatred  which  his  violation  of  the  nation's  customs  had  pro- 
cured for  him  (57),  and  the  famine  turned  out  to  his  great 
advantage. 


(57)    Antiq.  xv.,  ix.  2. 


herod  and  iiillel.  225 

22,     He  Assists  Augustus  and  Marries  Again. 

The  same  year  Herod  sent  five  hundred  chosen  men  of 
liis  guard  to  assist  Aelius  Gallius  in  a  war  against  the 
Arabs,  few  or  none  of  whom  ever  returned.  Meanwhile, 
tlie  king  fell  in  love  with  a  priest's  daughter.  Her  name 
was  Mariamne,  her  father's  name  was  Simon,  son  of 
Boethus.  hailing  from  Egypt.  Herod  deposed  the  high- 
priest  of  the  house  of  Fabus  and  placed  the  Boethite  in  the 
lofty  position,  and  then  married  his  beautiful  daughter. 
The  Boethites  were  Sadducees.  Four  of  them  were  liigh- 
priests  between  24  b.  c.  and  42  a.  c,  and  they  became  the 
theological  expounders  of  Sadduceeism  on  Helenistic  prin- 
ciples. Therefore,  the  Sadducees  were  frequently  called 
Boethites  (oTiirr'n)  (-58).  The  Sadducees,  deprived  of  polit- 
ical power,  became,  through  the  teachings  of  the  Boethites, 
a  religious  sect. 

23.      Three  Provinces  Added  to  Palestine. 

Herod's  three  sons  by  Mariamne,  the  Asmonean,  were 
his  special  favorites.  He  lavished  all  possible  care  and  ten- 
derness upon  them.  He  sent  them — Alexander,  Aristobul 
and  Herod — to  Rome  to  be  educated.  The  last-named 
died,  and  the  survivors  were  placed  in  the  house  of  Pollio, 
one  of  Herod's  intimate  friends.  But  the  emperor  took 
them  to  his  palace,  and  afforded  them  all  the  advantages  of 
a  princely  education.  He  was  so  favorably  impressed  with 
the  lads,  that  he  wrote  to  Herod  that  he  might  choose 
either  one  of  them  as  his  successor,  and  his  choice  was  con- 
firmed in  advance.  At  the  same  time,  Augustus  added  to 
Herod's  kingdom  the  three  provinces  of  Trachonitis,  Aura- 
nites  or  Iturea,  and  Batanea.  which  included  the  largest 
portion  of  Coelosyria  up  to  Damascus,  and  then  north-east 
beyond  the  34°  n.  1.  to  the  Mediterranean,  including  the 
seaport  of  Berytus  (22  b.  c).  One  Zendoborus  had  been 
farming  part  of  these  provinces  for  the  Romans,  after  An- 
tony had  slain  Lysanius,  its  prince  ;  but  that  man  had 
made  common  cause  with  the  numerous  robbers  who  in- 
fested those  mountains.  Herod  overcame  them  and  kept 
the  country  under  his  iron  sway,  although  Zendoborus  was 
alwa3's  busy  in  stirring  up  sedition  among  his  party.  The 
dissatisfied  ones  reached  Augustus,  and  gave  utterance  to 
their  grievances.  The  emperor  sent  his  friend,  Agrippa,  to 
the  East  to  govern  the  Asiatic  provinces  and  to  look  into 

(58)     Yerushalmi,  Yoma  i.  5 ;  Tosephta,  Ibid.  I. 


226  HEROD   AND   IIILLEL. 

into  the  affairs  of  the  Coelosyrians.  He  took  up  his  resi- 
dence at  Mitylene,  on  the  Island  of  Lesbos  and  Herod  went 
there  to  defend  his  course.  He  succeeded  well  with  the 
Roman,  who  was  his  personal  friend,  and  returned  to  Jeru- 
salem. When  he  was  gone,  ambassadors  of  the  people  of 
Gadara  came  to  Agrippa  to  seek  redress ;  but  he  sent  them 
in  chains  to  Herod,  who  had  the  moderation  this  time  to  let 
them  go  unpunished  (21  b.  c.)-  Next  year  Augustus  came 
to  Syria.  Again  the  parties  complained,  and  again  in  vain. 
He  received  Herod  like  a  brother,  and  Avhen  shortly  after 
Zendoborus  died,  the  emperor  presented  the  estates  of  the 
deceased,  Ulatha  and  Panias,  to  Herod.  It  was  in  this  latter 
place  that  the  Hebrew  king  erected  a  temple  to  Augustus, 
the  god-emperor.  It  was  not  in  Palestine  proper,  and  tho 
Hebrews  could  not  oppose  it ;  although  Herod's  hypocrisy 
and  adulation  must  have  rendered  him  contemptible  among 
honest  men. 

24.     The  Temple  in  Jerusalem  Rebuilt. 

Baba  b.  Buta,  whom  Herod  had  blinded,  gave  him  the 
advice  to  rebuild  the  temple  on  Mount  Moriah,  in  order  to 
atone  in  j)art  for  the  wrongs  he  had  inflicted  on  his  peo- 
ple (59).  Although  he  had  been  eminently  successful  with 
Augustus,  who  also  bestowed  a  tetrarchy  upon  Pheroras, 
Herod's  brother,  he  nevertheless  knew  that  his  people  was 
dissatisfied,  and  could  not  be  governed  altogether  against 
its  will.  He  released  his  subjects  of  a  third  part  of  the 
taxes  without  gaining  in  their  favor.  He  prohibited  all 
public  meetings,  surrounded  them  with  spies,  imprisoned 
many  in  the  citadel  of  Hyrcania,  where  not  a  few  were  put 
to  death  ;  but  it  did  not  change  the  outspoken  antagonism 
against  him.  He  demanded  an  oath  of  allegiance  from  his 
subjects.  However,  not  only  the  principal  Pharisees,  to 
the  number  of  six  thousand,  and  among  them  also  Hillel, 
Shammai  and  their  disciples  (60),  and  all  the  Essenes  re- 
fused to  take  the  oath ;  but  even  his  own  brother's  wife 
secretly  paid  the  fines  imposed  on  them  (61).  He  had 
ample  cause  to  know  that  something  of  extraordinary  im- 
portance had  to  be  accomplished  in  order  to  overcome  the 
popular  indignation.  He  obeyed  the  counsel  of  Baba  b. 
Buta  to  rebuild  the  temple.  The  people  were  neither  ready 
nor  willing  to  assist  him  in  this  work.     He  made  a  very 

(59)  Baba  Bathra  3  6  and  4  a. 

(60)  Josephus'Antiq.  xv.,  x.  4. 

(61)  Antiq.  xvii.,  iii.  4. 


HEROD   AND   HILLEL.  227 

flattering  address  to  them,  and  yet  many  feared  his  craft 
and  hypocrisy.  He  promised  not  to  tear  down  the  old 
building  till  the  materials  for  the  new  were  on  the  spot.  In 
one  year  and  six  months  the  priests  built  a  new  temple 
upon  the  spot  of  the  old,  which  was  looked  upon  as  the 
n^ost  gorgeous  and  most  costly  building  of  the  age  (19  to 
17  B.  c),  and  then  the  cloisters,  corridors,  towers  and 
arcades  were  rebuilt  in  the  same  magnificent  st3de,  all 
much  larger  and  loftier  than  in  the  old  temple.  Herod  did 
not  forget  to  build  a  subterranean  passage  from  Fort 
Antonio  to  the  eastern  gate  of  the  temple,  and  to  put  up  a 
golden  eagle  over  the  main  portal  to  please  Rome,  and  to 
have  easy  access  to  the  temple  in  case  of  need.  It  did  not 
rain  at  daytime,  as  long  as  the  work  was  progressing,  says 
Josephus  (62),  so  well  was  the  Almighty  pleased  with  that 
sacred  enterprise.  However,  neither  this  historian  nor 
Nicholaus,  of  Damascus,  Herod's  historiographer,  tells  us  of 
any  particular  enthusiasm  among  the  people  when  that 
gorgeous  structure  was  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  Most 
High.  The  holy  reminiscences  connected  with  the  old 
building,  now  over  five  hundred  years  old,  could  not  be  re- 
placed by  a  profusion  of  marble,  gold  or  architectural 
beauty,  produced  by  the  will  of  a  despot.  The  spirit  of 
piety  was  missing  in  the  beautiful  forms  of  the  new  temple. 
Herod  decorated  the  interior  of  the  temple  with  all  the  gold 
and  silver  he  could  find,  and  replaced  the  golden  vine  at 
the  entrance.  The  anniversary  of  his  ascension  of  the  throne 
was  appointed  as  the  day  of  dedication,  the  people  and 
numerous  foreigners  were  invited  to  the  gala  day,  hecatombs 
were  slaughtered,  the  altar  was  crimsoned  with  blood,  and 
the  guests  were  royally  entertained ;  but  no  fire  came  from) 
heaven,  no  enthusiasm  from  the  heart  of  the  dissatisfied  peo- 
ple ;  the  new  temple  was  a  mass  of  cold  marble  and  gold. 
Still  thousands,  and  especially  the  priests,  were  well  pleased 
with  the  gorgeous  structure,  which  was  admired  by  all  (63). 

25.     The  Foreign  Hebrews. 

No  Israelite  was  considered  a  foreigner  in  Palestine.  It 
was  his  country,  and  he  was  a  citizen  thereof,  whenever  he 
claimed  that  right,  although  he  w^as  also  a  Roman,  Alex- 
andrian or  Parthian  citizen  at  his  respective  home.  The 
term  "  Foreign  Hebrews  "  must  be  understood  in  regard  to 


(62)  Antiq.  xv.,  xi. 

(63)  Dibre  Malchuth  Baith  Sheni. 


228  IIEROD   AND    IIILLEL. 

domicile.  Those  Israelites  Avho  lived  outside  of  Palestine 
looked  upon  the  new  tcmj^le  Avith  the  same  veneration  as 
they  did  upon  the  old  one.  They  sent  their  annual  con- 
tributions as  heretofore  (G4).  and  came  to  Jerusalem,  espe- 
ciall_y  on  Passover,  in  very  large  numbers.  Still,  all  over 
the  Roman  Empire  they  maintained  their  rights  as  Roman 
citizens,  with  freedom  of  worship,  as  Julius  Caesar  had 
granted  to  Hyrcan  IL,  and  Marc  Antony  had  confirmed 
after  Caesar's  death.  Augustus  also  found  occasion  to  re- 
confirm their  privileges,  especially  to  those  of  Ionia,  Libya, 
Cj'rene  and  elsewhere,  when  the  Greeks,  disliking  the  Mono- 
theism of  the  Hebrews,  attempted  to  interdict  their  worship 
and  to  prevent  their  sending  of  money  to  Jerusalem.  But 
the  edicts  of  Julius  Ca}sar  Avere  also  enforced  by  Augustus. 
In  one  case  the  decision  was  rendered  by  Agrippa  in  Ionia, 
in  presence  of  Herod,  Nicholaus,  of  Damascus,  pleading  the 
cause  of  the  Hebrews.  The  other  cases  were  decided  in 
Rome  on  presentation  of  the  case  by  a  deputation  of  He- 
brews from  Cyrene  (65). 

26.    A  Settlement  of  Babylonians. 

Herod  was  no  less  hated  in  Trachonitis  than  in  Pales- 
tine. The  robbers  and  guerrillas  there,  in  sympathy  with 
the  Arabs  and  with  their  own  people,  gave  him  much 
trouble.  When  he  was  in  Rome  for  a  short  time  it  was 
given  out  that  he  was  dead,  and  that  whole  province  rose  in 
an  insurrection  against  his  authority.  Returning  from 
Rome,  he  drove  the  robbers  and  guerrillas  into  their  moun- 
tain fastness,  where  they  defied  him.  He  slew  the  relatives 
of  those  men  all  over  the  country,  which  made  the  evil 
worse.  This  also  involved  him  in  a  quarrel  with  Obedas 
and  Aretas,  his  successor.  King  of  Arabia,  and  finally  led 
him  to  rashly  invade  that  country.  Augustus  being  in- 
formed thereof  was  very  angry  at  Herod,  and  it  took  all 
the  eloquence  of  Nicholaus,  of  Damascus,  to  restore 
Herod  in  the  favor  of  Augustus  (66).     In  order  to  keep 


(64)  Josephns'  Antiq.  xvi.,  ii.  and  vi. 

(65)  Remarkable  in  the  decree  of  Augustus,  preserved  by  Jose- 
phus  (Antiq,  xvi..  vi.  2),  is  the  passage,  "That  the  Jews  have  "^liberty 
to  make  use  of  their  own  customs  according  to  the  laws  of  their 
fathers,  as  they  made  use  of  them  under  Hyrcan,  the  iiigiipriest  op 
Almighty  God,"  etc.,  these  last  words  being  a  wonderful  admission 
by  a  heathen  emperor,  unless  they  refer  to  the  title  assumed  by  John 
Hyrcan  jv'iy  ^x^  pD 

(66)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xvi.,  ix. 


HEROD  AND  IIILLEL.  229 

Trachonitis  quiet  Herod  invited  Zamaris,  a  Babylonian  He- 
brew, and  his  followers,  to  settle  down  in  a  position  which 
enabled  them  to  keep  the  Trachonites  peaceable.  This 
Zamaris  was  an  exj^ert  horseman  and  archer,  and  so  were 
all  his  followers,  as  well  as  most  of  the  Parthians.  He  had 
come  with  a  hundred  men  to  Syria,  and  the  Roman  gov- 
ernor, Saturninus,  had  given  them  a  new  home  at  Valatha, 
near  Daphne.  Herod  invited  this  man  and  his  followers  to 
settle  in  or  near  Trachonitis,  in  order  to  protect  the  pil- 
grims to  Jerusalem  from  the  East.  They  were  given  land 
in  Batanea  free  of  taxes  and  with  considerable  autonomy, 
and  built  there  the  fortified  village  of  Bathyra,  which  they 
held  to  a  time  long  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  a  people 
famous  for  valor  and  candor,  no  less  than  for  expert  horse- 
manship. 

27.     Death  of  Mariamne's  Sons, 

Having  narrated  the  public  acts  of  Herod,  we  return  to 
his  domestic  life.  This  was  a  series  of  intrigues,  cabals, 
conspiracies,  malicious  accusations,  hatred,  torture  of  ser- 
vants and  friends,  of  misery  and  wretchedness  to  Herod, 
horror  and  death  to  his  courtiers  and  three  of  his  sons.  In 
the  year  16  b.  c.  Herod  went  to  Rome  and  came  back  to 
Jerusalem  with  his  two  sons  by  the  Asmonean  Mariamne, 
Alexander  and  Aristobul.  Thereupon  Alexander  married 
Glaphyra,  daughter  of  Archelaus,  King  of  Cappadocia,  and 
Aristobul  married  Bernice,  Herod's  niece,  the  daughter  of 
Salome.  The  hopes  of  the  nation  Avere  centered  in  these 
two  young  princes.  Therefore,  they  were  hated  by  Herod's 
family ;  for  Salome,  no  less  than  Pharoras,  entertained 
hopes  of  securing  the  succession.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
were  Herod's  first  wife,  Doris,  and  her  son,  Antipater,  who, 
by  right  of  primogeniture,  was  the  future  King  of  Judea. 
Nor  was  the  second  Mariamne,  with  her  son,  Herod,  inac- 
tive in  her  own  behalf  So  the  intrigues,  treacheries  and 
mutual  denunciations  began  in  Herod's  palace.  The  two 
princes,  who  were  mere  children  when  their  mother  was  be- 
headed, had,  nevertheless,  learned  of  it  in  Rome,  and  looked 
upon  their  father  as  the  murderer  of  their  mother  and  her 
whole  family,  and  disliked  him  heartily  and  frankly.  This 
roused  Herod's  suspicion  against  them,  and  he  saw  the 
specters  of  his  own  guilt  in  his  sons.  Salome  understood 
the  diabolical  art  of  poisoning  Herod's  mind,  and  he  soon 
saw  nothing  but  fratricides  and  regicides.  Herod  having 
again  taken  Doris  and  Antipater  into  his  palace,  the  con- 


230  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

spiracies  of  the  women  and  the  wickedness  of  Antipater 
were   unbounded,  till  he   accused   Alexander,  the  heir  ap- 
parent, of  having  attempted  to  poison  his  father.     Herod 
took  Alexander  to  Rome  before  Augustus,  who  declared  him 
innocent,  and  reconciled  the  father  and  son.     The  ingenuity 
of  the  conspirators    was   not  yet  exhausted.     Again  they 
found  means  to  arouse  Herod's   suspicion,  and  Alexander 
was  put  in  chains  again  after  Pheroras  and  Salome  had  been 
pardoned  for  their  part  in  a  plot  against  the  king.     Arche- 
laus,  the  father-in-law  of  Alexander,  came  to  Judea,  and  by 
his  prudent  management  he  succeeded  in  reconciling  father 
and  son,  and  in  persuading  Herod  that  his  evil  inclination 
to  suspect  everybody  and  to  give  credence  to    every  ma- 
licious gossip  was  the  cause  of  all  his  troubles.     It  did  not 
last  long.     A  wicked  man,  Eurycles,  conspiring  with   Anti- 
pater, being  well  paid  by  the  latter,  ingratiated  himself  with 
the  king,  won  his  confidence,  and  cautioned  him  against  his 
sons,  Alexander  and  Aristobul,  who,  he  said,  were  anxiously 
awaiting  an  opportunity  to  assassinate  their  father.     They 
were  arrested  and  put  in  bonds.     Augustus  gave  permission 
to  have  them  tried  at  Bery  tus,  where  a  Court  of  Roman  and 
Syrian  dignitaries  heard  Herod's  violent  accusations.     The 
sons  and  their  advocates  were  not  heard,  and  the  Court  con- 
demned them    to  death.     An  outcry   of  horror  shook  the 
land.     An  old  soldier,  Tero,  had   the  moral  courage  to  tell 
the  king  that  justice  was  trampled  under  foot,  truth  was  de- 
fied and  nature  confounded.     But  he  and  many  others  were 
arrested,  and  another  plot  was   spun  by  the  three   furies, 
Salome,  Pheroras  and  Antipater,  a  number  of  soldiers,  and 
Trypho,  the  barber,  were  slain.     The  two  princes  were  sent 
to   Sebaste,  and  there  put  to  death  by   strangulation,  and 
their  remains  were  sent  to  Alexandrium  (6  b.  c).     So  Herod 
destroyed  first  the  Asmonean  and  then  his  own  dynasty ; 
for  with  the  death  of  these  princes  the  hopes  of  his  family 
among  the  Hebrews  were  destroyed. 

28.     Pheroras  and    his  Wife  Banished. 

One  of  the  conspirators  at  Herod's  Court  was  his  brother, 
Pheroras.  and  his  wife,  who  had  paid  the  fines  for  the  Phari- 
sees. They  had  prophesied  to  her  and  her  successors  the 
crown  of  Judea,  which  had  cost  their  lives.  Herod  de- 
manded of  his  brother  to  abandon  his  wife,  which  he  re- 
fused to  do.  The  king  then  commanded  his  son,  Antipater, 
and  his  mother,  to  hold  no  intercourse  with  Plieroras  and 
his  wife,  and  enjoined  upon  the  latter  to  avoid  the  company 


HEROD   AND   HILLEL.  £31 

of  the  women  at  Court.  Still  Antipater  and  Pheroras,  with 
his  wife,  frequently  met  at  the  rooms  of  Antipater's  mother, 
iind  it  was  given  out  that  he  had  criminal  intercourse  with 
his  aunt.  The  actual  cause  of  their  intimacy,  however,  was 
not  yet  known.  Antipater,  at  his  own  request,  was  sent  to 
Rome  with  rich  presents  and  the  last  will  of  Herod,  which 
appointed  Antipater  his  successor,  and  in  case  of  this 
prince's  untimely  death,  the  throne  should  be  inherited  by 
Herod  Philip,  the  son  of  the  second  Mariamne.  Pheroras 
^nd  his  wife  were  banished  from  Jerusalem,  and  he  swore 
never  to  see  the  king  again.  Shortly  aftei-,  however,  Phe- 
roras fell  sick  and  Herod  came  to  his  residence.  Soon  after 
the  banished  prince  died,  and  Herod  brought  back  his  re- 
mains to  Jerusalem,  and  had  them  interred  with  high 
honors.  The  death  of  Pheroras  became  the  cause  of  Anti- 
pater's downfall. 

29.     The  Fall  of  Antipater  and  the  Highpriest. 

Antipater.  was  his  father's  equal  in  wickedness,  and  on  a 
level  with  Salome  in  designing  intrigues  and  plotting  con- 
spiracies.    When  the  three  conspirators   had  succeeded  in 
disposing  of  the  sons  of  the  Asmonean  Mariamne,  the  con- 
spirators operated  against  one  another ;  this  time   Salome 
against  Antipater  and  Pheroras.     The  end  was  the  journey 
of  Antipater    to  Rome  and   the   banishment    of  Pheroras. 
His  death  was  unfortunate  for  his  wife,  for  she  was  accused 
of   having    poisoned    him.     A  searching  investigation  fol- 
lowed, the  torture  was  applied,  and  the  discovery  made,  that 
Doras    and    her  son,  Antipater,   hated  the  king,  and  were 
anxiously  awaiting  his  death ;    and   that   the  poison    dis- 
covered in  possession  of  Pheroras'  wife  had   been  sent  to 
her   by  Antipater,    while    on    his    way    to     Rome,    to    be 
administered    to    Herod.     These    facts    being    established, 
Doras  was  driven  from  the  palace,  and  epistles  dispatched 
to  Rome  to  bring  back   Antipater,  under  the  pretense   that 
the  king  was  very  sick  and  desirous  of  seeing  him.  Also  the 
second  Mariamne  was  found  guilty  of  conspiracy  and  driven 
trom   the  palace,  her  son  was  disinherited,  her  father   re- 
moved from  the  high  priesthood.     This  office  was  given  to 
Matthias,  son  of  Theophilus,  who  was  replaced  shortly  after 
by  Eleazar,  son  of  Boethus.     Antipater  returned,  was  ar- 
rested and  tried  before  Quintilius  Varus,  then  President  of 
Syria.     Nichnlaus,  of  Damascus,  was  the  accuser  and  prose- 
cutor, and  Antipater  was  condemned  to   death.     He   was 
bound  and  sent  to  the  royal  castle  at  Jericho,  and  the  whole 


232  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

matter  was  referred  to  Augustus.  Augustus  said  he  would 
rather  be  Herod's  swine  than  his  son.  The  last  will  of 
Herod  was  changed,  and  he  himself  approached  his  end. 

80.     Special  Sins  of  Herod. 

A  special  sin  of  Herod  was  that  he  took  it  upon  himself 
to  sell  burglars  as  slaves  to  foreign  countries,  which,  like 
the  eagle  upon  the  temple,  violated  the  laws  of  the  country 
(67).  This,  being  a  direct  interference  with  personal  rights 
and  freedom,  was  considered  one  of  his  most  unpardonable 
sins.  His  next  special  sin  was  that  he  opened  and  entered 
the  sepulchre  of  King  David  (68).  He  stood  in  need  of 
money,  had  heard  that  there  were  treasures  in  that  sepul- 
chre, 23art  of  which  only  John  Hyrcan  had  taken  out,  and 
went  down  to  secure  the  remainder.  Naturally  enough,  he 
found  nothing  except  a  few  golden  ornaments,  which  he 
took,  and  escaped  with  empty  hands  and  a  distressing 
fright.  He  built  a  propitiatory  monument  of  white  stone 
at  the  entrance  of  that  ancient  structure,  which  did  him 
no  good,  for  the  people  were  convinced  that  his  domestic 
miseries,  which  made  him  the  most  wretched  man  in  Is- 
rael, came  upon  him  with  renewed  violence  in  consequence 
of  that  sacrilege.  Polygamy,  which  had  become  extinct, 
at  least  among  the  kings  and  princes,  was  reintroduced  by 
Herod,  who  had  no  less  than  nine  wives,  six  of  whom  were 
blessed  with  children.  Another  of  his  special  sins  was  the 
reintroduction  of  the  Olympian  games,  this  time  in  the 
heathen  city  of  Sebaste  (8  b.  c),  when  all  the  buildings  of 
that  city  were  completed.  Under  tlie  most  disgusting  pomp^ 
ostentation  and  extravagance,  to  which  also  Julia,  the  wife 
of  Augustus,  contributed  her  share,  the  revolting  displays 
of  naked  brutality  tainted  by  Grecian  art  were  enacted 
before  a  hilarious  company  of  foreigners  and  domestic  adu- 
lators and  slaves  (69).  The  games  were  established  by  the 
king,  to  take  place  every  fifth  year,  but  it  did  not  come  ta 
pass.  If  anything  more  had  been  necessary  to  disgust  the 
people  with  the  hoary  sinner  these  games  would  certainly 
have  been   sufficient. 

31.     The  End  of  Herod. 

Herod  had  grown  old.     Although  he  spent  much  of  his 
time  in  corporeal  exercises,  dyed  his  hair  and  beard,  painted 

(67)  Antiq.  xvi.  1. 

(68)  Antiq.  xvi.,  viii. 

(69)  Antiq.  xvi.,  v. 


HEROD   AND   HILLEL.  233 

his  face  and  changed  domicile  frequently,  his  health  and 
strength  failed.  The  baths  of  Callirhoe  afforded  him  no 
relief.  His  disease  grew  on  him.  He  was  always  hungry, 
and  every  bite  of  food  gave  him  terrible  pain.  His  body 
was  swollen,  and  emitted  a  pestilential  stench.  The  bath 
of  perfumed  oil  did  him  no  good ;  there  was  no  relief  for 
him  either  bodily  or  spiritually ;  he  was  the  most  wretched 
man  in  his  country.  All  his  crimes  loomed  up  in  his  mind 
and  tormented  him,Avhile  he  suffered  the  most  intense  phys- 
ical pain  (70).  Yet  the  list  of  his  crimes  was  augmented 
in  the  last  days  of  his  life.  Two  Pharisean  teachers,  Judas 
b.  Saripheus  and  Matthias  b.  Margoloth,  falsely  informed 
of  the  king's  death,  excited  their  disciples  to  a  rash  act  of 
public  disturbance.  They  threw  down  the  golden  eagle 
from  the  temple  gate.  The  two  teachers  and  forty  young 
men  were  arrested  and  condemned  to  death  by  Herod  for 
sacrilege.  They  died  heroically  on  the  pyre,  and  left  to 
Herod's  successor  a  terrible  legacy  of  popular  hatred. 
Shortly  after,  Herod,  under  the  influence  of  tormenting 
pains,  attempted  suicide,  which  was  thwarted  by  his  ser- 
vants. The  noise  to  which  this  event  gave  rise  in  the 
palace  at  Jericho,  reached  Antipater's  prison.  Believing 
his  father  dead,  he  made  seductive  promises  to  his  jailer  to 
set  him  free.  Herod  learning  how  his  son  rejoiced  over  the 
liews  of  his  father's  death,  ordered  his  immediate  execu- 
tion, Augustus  had  decided  not  to  interfere,  and  the  head 
of  plotting  Antipater  fell  five  days  before  the  death  of 
Herod.  The  last  villainy  of  Herod  was,  that  he  had  cap- 
tured many  of  the  most  prominent  men,  kept  them  cap- 
tives in  the  hippodrome  at  Jericho,  to  be  slain  after  his 
death,  so  that  the  nation  should  mourn  for  them,  as  he 
knew  none  would  mourn  for  him.     But  this  act  of  barbarity 


(70)  Matthew's  story  of  the  massacre  of  the  babes  in  Bethlehem 
can  not  be  true.  No  other  book  of  the  New  Testament  or  outside 
thereof  mentions  this  atrocious  deed.  Herod's  misdeeds  were  not 
committed  in  direct  violation  of  Jewish  law,  and  tliat  slaughter 
would  have  been  an  exception  so  shocking  in  its  nature  that  it  must 
have  been  recorded.  The  story  of  Matthew  is  based  upon  an  astro- 
logical superstition,  with  a  star  moving  from  east  to  M^est.  Mattliew 
misinterprets  a  passage  of  Jeremiah  and  then  turns  it  to  a  fact,  so 
that  his  intention  to  write  a  legend  for  public  use  can  not  be  misun- 
derstood. Besides  all  this,  Luke  directly  contradicts  Matthew's  gen- 
ealogy of  Jesus  and  the  story  of  his  nativity,  which  lie  replaces  by 
another  legend ;  so  that  John  rejected  both,  and  no  other  New  Testa- 
ment writer  refers  to  the  birth  of  Jesus  or  any  circumstances  con- 
nected with  it.  Perhaps  Matthew  intended  to  refer  (hke  Luke)  to 
Archelaus,  who  was  also  called  Herod. 


234  HEROD   AND    HILLEL. 

was  not  executed.  A  few  days  after  (3  b.  c.  (according  to 
Jewish  count  4  b.  c),  in  the  year  751  of  Rome),  on  the 
second  day  of  Shebat  (71),  after  a  reign  of  thirty-four 
years  (72),  and  at  the  age  of  seventy,  died  the  most  wicked 
and  most  Avretched  king  of  the  Hebrew  people,  cursed  by 
many  and  himented  by  none.  Herod  was  great  as  a  soldier 
and  statesman.  He  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  Palestine, 
improved  the  country,  advanced  the  arts  of  civilization, 
and  gained  Rome's  respect  and  good  will  for  the  Hebrew 
people.  But  he  was  the  assassin  of  the  Asmoneans,  the 
executioner  of  his  kinsmen  and  friends,  the  heartless  des- 
pot of  his  antagonists,  as  all  Roman  rulers  of  his  time 
were,  and  a  most  abominable  fury  in  his  old  age.  Yet  he 
respected  the  religion,  worship,  laws,  customs  and  private 
rights  of  his  people  ;  so  that  aside  of  his  family  and  cour- 
tiers, none  but  political  offenders  were  maltreated  by  him, 
and  the  complaints  against  him  rose  not  only  from  the 
heavy  burdens  of  taxes  which  he  imposed,  as  they  had  also 
risen  against  King  Solomon  after  his  death ;  they  rose 
chiefly  from  the  offense  which  he  had  given  to  the  moral 
feelings  of  many,  the  general  antagonism  against  the  for- 
eign power  and  the  imposition  of  despotism  on  the  Hebrew 
people,  which  made  his  name  odious  among  his  people. 
And  yet  there  was  in  Judea  a  party  of  Herodians  after  his 
death  who  gratefully  remembered  the  great  services  he  had 
rendered  to  his  country. 


(71)  Meguillatpi  Taanith  xi.,  which  was  made  a  half  holiday. 

(72)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xvii ,  viii.  1 ;  Wars  I.  xxxiii.  The  Evange- 
list Matthew  was  the  only  cause  why  Christian  writers,  contrary  to 
all  sources,  gave  to  Herod  a  reign  of  thirty-seven  or  thirty  eight 
years,  so  that  he  must  have  died  in  the  year  after  the  birth  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  But  tliere  are  the  following  objections:  1.  The  begin- 
ning of  the  Christian  era  fixed  by  the  Dionysius  Exiguus,  in  the 
sixth  century,  is  now  generally  admitted  to  be  inaccurate  liy  four 
years  (See  Chronology  in  Harper  &  Bros.'  Cyclopfedia  of  Biblical 
Theology,  etc.),  so  that  it  is  supposed  Jesus  was  born  4  b.  c,  which  is 
no  less  an  error,  while  it  is  certain  that  the  eclipse  of  the  moon  in  the 
year  of  Herod's  death  was  March  13,  4  b.  c.  (Josephus'  Antiq.  xvii., 
vii.  4).  2.  According  to  Luke,  Jesus  being  born  in  tlie  year  of  a  Roman 
census,  it  must  have  occurred  in  the  year  6  or  7  a.  c,  when  the  cen- 
sus described  by  Luke  was  taken  (See  Prideaux's Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, etc.,  in  Anno  5  B.  c.  and  8  a.  c). 


I 


THE   FRUITS   OF   DESPOTISM.  235 


CHAPTER  XX. 


The  Fruits  of  Despotism. 


1.     Herod's  Last  Will  and  Burial. 

Herod  left  by  his  nine  wives,  besides  the  grandchildren 
of  the  Asmonean,  Mariamne,  also  the  following  children  : 
By  Mariamne,  daughter  of  the  highpriest,  Herod,  Philip, 
and  three  more  children  ;  by  Malthace,  Archelaus  and  An- 
tipas ;  by  Cleopatra,  Philip  and  two  more  children ;  by 
Pallas,  Phedra  and  Elpis,  one  child  each ;  and  three  of  his 
wives  were  childless.  Archelaus  married  his  deceased 
half-brother's  (Alexander's)  wife,  Glaphira,  whose  children 
b}'-  Alexander  were  Alexander  II.  and  Tigranes.  Herod's 
last  will  was  that  Arclielaus  should  inherit  Judea,  Idumea 
-and  Samaria ;  Philip  should  receive  Auronitis,  Trachonitis, 
Paneas  and  Batanea ;  and  Antipas,  Galilee  and  Perea;  the 
income  of  the  cities  of  Jamnia,  Ashdod  and  Phasaelis,  with 
a  sum  of  500,000  drachma?,  he  willed  to  his  sister  Salome. 
He  also  made  provision  for  the  rest  of  his  children,  and 
willed  most  all  liis  money,  precious  vessels  and  garments  to 
Augustus  and  his  wife.  Herod  Philip,  the  son  of  the 
second  Mariamne,  was  given  a  legacy  but  no  claims  in  the 
succession.  Therefore,  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Herod,  Archelaus  assumed  the  royal  authority.  AMien  Sa- 
lome's husband,  Alexa  (1),  had  dismissed  the  captives  in 
the  hippodrome  at  Jericho,  and  Herod's  letter  to  the  army 
had  been  read,  arrangements  were  made  to  bur}',  in  royal 
pomp,  the  half  rotten  bod}'  of  the  deceased  king ;  and  it 
Was  carried  out  with  all  the  barbarous  luxury  and  ostenta- 
tion, as  if  Herod  himself,    with  all  his  vainglory,  had  ar- 

(1)  This  Alexa,  called  in  the  Talmud  N'DD^N  or  NDD^,  an  abbre 
"viation  of  Alexander,  died  at  Lvdda,  where  great  honors  were  be- 
stowed on  him  by  the  savans  of  his  day  {Chagiga  18  a). 


236  THE    FRUITS    OF    DESPOTISM. 

ranged  the  matter.  He  was  buried  at  Herodium,  and  then 
followed  seven  days  of  mourning.  The  patriots  declared 
the  day  when  the  captives  were  dismissed  from  the  hippo- 
drome a  half  holiday  {Meguillath  Taanith  xi.). 

2.     Archelaus  Accepted. 

The  Hebrew  people  were  willing  to  submit  to  Archelaus, 
and  expected  reforms.  When  after  the  days  of  mourning 
he  Avent  to  the  temple,  he  was  received  with  demonstrations 
of  loyalty.  A  throne  of  gold  had  been  placed  on  a  plat- 
form in  the  temple  court,  which  Archelaus  mounted  and  was 
received  with  popular  acclamation.  He  returned  thanks, 
and  informed  the  multitude  that  he  could  not  accept  the 
diadem  before  it  was  granted  him  by  Augustus.  He  ex- 
pressed his  hopes  that  this  would  be  done  and  his  promise 
to  be  "  better  than  his  father."  The  people  believed  him, 
and  demanded  the  release  of  all  political  prisoners,  and  a 
reduction  of  taxes.  Archelaus  promised  all  this  and  much, 
more,  in  order  to  keep  them  attached  to  his  cause. 

3.     The  Dissatisfied  Party. 

The  two  teachers,  and  their  forty  disciples,  slain  by 
Herod  and  buried  like  brutes,  had  left  too  man}'  friends  and 
disciples  in  the  city  to  be  forgotten  in  so  short  a  time.  The 
teacher  had  become  the  highest  and  most  sacred  personage. 
He  was  the  highpriest  of  his  disciples,  their  living  library 
and  prophet,  who  was  to  be  honored  above  all  men ;  as  the 
sage  was  considered  higher  in  authority  than  the  prophet, 
and  the  learned  bastard  preferable  to  the  ignorant  high- 
priest.  The  head  of  a  school  was  looked  upon  as  the  high- 
est of  all  mortals.  But  Herod  had  two  of  them  and  forty 
of  their  disciples  slain  and  buried  like  condemned  rebels ; 
and  the  survivors  demanded  retribution.  They  assembled 
in  groups  and  lamented  their  loss,  till  many  sympathized 
witii  them.  Then  they  demanded  of  Archelaus  the  punish- 
ment of  those  who  were  connected  with  that  execution,  and 
the  removal  of  the  Boethite  highpriest,  Joazar,  whose  the- 
ology was  abominable  to  them,  and  whose  predecessor 
in  office,  Matthias  b.  Theophilus,  was  removed  on  account 
of  his  complicity  in  that  affair,  which  cost  those  tenrhers' 
lives  (2).     Archelaus  was  embarrassed.     He  did  not  like  ta 

(2)  Antiq.  xvii.,  vi  4;  ix.  1.  Matthias,  the  teacher,  had  beea 
biirnt  alive,  and  that  very  niplit  therft  was  an  eclipse  of  the  moon. 
Did  not  the  Evangelists  imitate  this  situation? 


I 
I 

I 


THE   FRUITS   OF   DESPOTISM.  237 

exercise  any  sovereign  authority  before  he  had  obtained 
the  Roman  sanction  to  his  father's  testament ;  and  had  a 
sedition  before  him  in  Jerusalem.  Tlierefore,  he  promised 
to  do  all  they  had  demanded  as  soon  as  he  should  be  con- 
firmed in  his  office  by  Augustus.  But  those  men  did  not 
care  for  promises,  they  demanded  speedy  action.  They 
■would  not  listen  to  the  king's  messengers,  and  continued 
their  public  meetings  and  clamors  in  the  temple,  and  the 
number  of  sympathizers  grew  rapidly,  augmented  by  the 
usual  number  of  seditious  persons.  They  kept  up  the  ex- 
citement to  the  Passover  Feast,  when  they  found  numerous 
sympathizers  among  the  pilgrims.  Archelaus  sent  soldiers 
to  the  temple  inclosure  to  arrest  the  leaders,  but  they  over- 
powered the  troops  He  ordered  an  attack  in  force  upon  the 
pilgrims  inside  the  temple  inclosure,  while  those  outside 
thereof  were  prevented  by  cavalry  from  assisting  them. 
Three  thousand  of  the  multitude  were  slain,  and  the  rest 
iled  in  dismay,  carrying  all  over  the  land  the  tidings  of  the 
bloody  deed,  which  was  the  signal  for  one  of  the  worst  in- 
surrections in  the  history  of  the  Hebrews. 

4.    All  go  to  Rome. 

The  city  being  quiet  again,  Archelaus  appointed  his  half- 
brother,  Philip,  regent,  and  left  Jerusalem  accompanied  by 
his  mother,  Nicholaus,  of  Damascus,  and  other  friends  and 
advocates,  to  go  to  Rome.     At  Csesarea  he  met  Sabinus,  the 
treasurer  of  Augustus,  who  had  come  to  take  possession  of 
Herod's    treasury.     This   was    momentarily   prevented     by 
Varus,  the  Governor  of  Syria.     Now  Archelaus  started  for 
Rome.     But  he  was  followed  by  Salome  and  her  children, 
Antipas  and  his  mother,  with   his   advocates,  each  claiming 
the    crown   from    the    hands  of  Augustus.     Besides,  there 
came  afterward  to  Rome  fifty  ambassadors  of  the  Hebrew 
people  encouraged  by  Varus,  and   they  were  supported  by 
eight  thousand  Hebrew  residents  of  Rome,  to  remonstrate 
against  the  whole  Herodian  family,  and  to  obtain  the  liberty 
of  living  according  to  their  own  laws  (3),  or  to  be  joined  to 
the  province  of  Syria  (4).     This  embassy  was  also  followed 
by  Philip,  who  had  some  hopes  of  receiving  the  crown.     The 
greatest  orators  of  the  age  were  engaged. by  the  contesting 
parties,  and   all   sorts  of  intrigues  were  enacted.     It  took 
Augustus  a  long  time  before  he  could  decide.     The  people's 


(31     Antiq   xvii  ,  xi. 
(4)     Wars  TI.  vi.  2. 


238  THE    FRUITS   OF    DESPOTISM. 

ambassadors,  of  course,  were  overruled  in  Caesarian  Rome. 
At  last  the  various  parties  were  disappointed  and  Herod's  last 
will  was  confirmed,  although  it  was  also  partly  opposed  by 
Varus  and  Sabinus.  Archelaus  was  confirmed  as  ethnarch 
of  Judea,  Idumea  and  Samaria,  with  the  exception  of  the 
three  cities  of  Gaza,  Gadara  and  Hippose,  which  being  in- 
habited by  foreigners,  were  taken  to  Syria.  Galilee  and 
Perea  were  given  to  Antipas.  Philip  received  the  four 
northern  principalities.  Salome  received  what  Herod  had 
bequeathed  to  her  and  a  royal  palace  at  Askalon.  The 
money  willed  to  Augustus  was  given  to  Herod's  daughters, 
and  he  gave  them  in  marriage  to  the  sons  of  Pheroras. 
Before  this  decision  was  rendered  the  following  bloody 
drama  was  enacted  in  Palestine  : 

5.     A  Second  Cause  of  Rebellion. 

Varus  had  accepted  the  task  of  keeping  Jerusalem  quiet. 
He  came  to  the  city  and  found  its  citizens  peaceable.  He 
left  a  Roman  legion  there  and  returned  to  Antioch.  A  few 
days  later  Sabinus,  contrary  to  his  promise  given  to  Varus 
to  await  the  decision  of  Augustus,  seized  the  citadels  of 
Jerusalem  and  searched  for  money,  wherever  he  thought 
there  was  any  to  be  found,  to  satisfy  his  notorious  avarice. 
This  outrage  on  the  rights  of  a  people  roused  a  bitter 
hatred  in  the  country  against  the  foreign  robber.  The 
Feast  of  Pentecost  approaching,  people  from  all  parts  of 
the  land  came  in  large  numbers,  and  an  organization  was 
effected.  Divided  in  three  corps,  they  took  such  positions 
that  Sabinus  and  his  soldiers  were  beleaguered.  Sabinus 
fled  to  the  tower  of  Phasael,  wrote  urgent  letters  to  Varus, 
and  then  commanded  an  attack  on  the  Hebrews.  The 
latter  were  defeated,  but  immediately  rallied  again  and  drove 
the  Romans  and  Herodians  from  their  positions.  Sabinus 
succeeded  in  setting  fire  to  the  temple  cloisters,  so  that  the 
whole  building  was  in  danger.  This  carried  confusion  and 
death  into  the  ranks  of  the  Hebrews.  The  Romans  rushed 
into  the  temple,  seized  its  treasury,  and  achieved  a 
momentary  victory.  The  Hebrews  mllied  again,  a  number 
of  Herod's  soldiers  fraternized  with  them,  and  they  jDressed 
Sabinus  into  the  royal  palace,  where  they  besieged  him. 
They  demanded  that  he  and  his  men  should  leave  the  city, 
or  else  all  of  them  should  be  burnt  in  the  palace.  Expect- 
ing the  arrival  of  Varus,  he  did  not  capitulate,  and  the 
siege  was  vigorously  pressed  until  the  approach  of  Varus, 
several  weeks  after,  terrified  the  multitude,  which  left  the 


THE    FRUITS    OF   DESPOTISM.  239 

city  and  afforded  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  the  opportunity 
of  denying  every  connection  with  tlie  rebels. 

6.     Detached  Rebellions. 

The  people  all  over  the  land  were  exasperated  by  the 
bloody  work  done  in  Jerusalem  during  Passover  and  Pente- 
cost, and  the  whole  land  was  ripe  for  rebellion.  It  broke 
out  simultaneously  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  without 
fixed  design  or  unity  of  action.  In  Idumea,  two  thousand 
of  Herod's  veterans,  most  likely  those  who  had  fraternized 
with  the  people  in  Jerusalem,  raised  the  standard  of  rebel- 
lion, forced  Achiabus,  Herod's  cousin,  with  his  corps  to  re- 
treat into  the  fastnesses  of  the  mountains,  and  succeeded 
in  organizing  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men  with  relations  of 
Herod  among  their  commanders.  The  real  object  of  this 
party  is  unknown.  Meanwhile  a  slave  of  Herod,  Simon, 
excited  an  insurrection  in  Perea,  collected  a  considerable 
force  of  fighting  men  and  crossed  the  Jordan.  He  burnt 
the  royal  palace  at  Jericho  and  other  royal  edifices,  after  he 
had  plundered  them,  and  had  been  proclaimed  king  by  his 
followers.  In  the  north  two  disconnected  parties  rose  in 
rebellion  and  did  terrible  execution.  One  was  the  gigantic 
shepherd,  Athronges,  with  his  four  brothers,  who  was  pro- 
claimed king.  He  came  down  from  the  Upper  Jordan,  de- 
feated the  Romans,  and  drove  them  as  far  as  Sebaste.  Mean- 
while the  Galilean  democrats  raised  their  standard  under 
Jucla,  of  Gamala,  the  son  of  the  so-called  robber,  Ezekias, 
whom  Herod  had  slain.  He  took  Sepphoris  with  the  arms 
and  treasures  stored  there,  and  earnestly  strove  to  restore 
the  republic.  Besides  these,  smaller  parties  of  guerrillas  rose 
and  ransacked  the  country.  All  these  parties  fought  the 
Romans  and  Herodians,  although  they  also  afflicted  many 
non-combatant  citizens,  and  plunged  the  whole  country  into 
miser}^  without  hope  of  success,  on  account  of  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  various  leaders.  Had  Juda,  of  Gamala,  been 
the  man  to  unite  the  rebellious  factions,  a  new  epoch  might 
have  opened.  The  reign  of  absolutism  had  demoralized 
the  Hebrews. 

7.    The  Campaign  of  Varus. 

The  Roman  legion  and  the  royal  troops  were  helpless 
amid  those  commotions.  Varus,  on  receiving  the  letter 
of  Sabiniis,  immediately  concentrated  his  two  legions  and 
the  auxiliary  troops  at  Ptolemais,  and  marched  with 
three   columns  into  Palestine.     The  various   parties    were 


240  THE    FRUITS   OF   DESPOTISM. 

successively  overthrown  or  checked,  Sepphoris  was  burnt 
and  its  inhabitants  sold  into  slavery,  Enimaus  and  other 
cities  suffered  a  similar  fate,  and  Varus  arrived  at  Jerusa- 
lem in  time  to  save  Sabinus  with  all  his  stolen  treasures. 
Besides  all  the  cities  burnt  and  the  people  sold  as  slaves, 
two  thousand  Hebrews  were  crucified,  and  the  relatives  of 
Herod  engaged  in  the  rebellion  were  punished  in  Rome. 
Still  the  insurrection  was  not  entirely  overcome.  Athronges 
held  out  a  long  time  after  that  event.  Now  Varus  gave  his 
permission  to  the  popular  party  to  send  an  embassy  to 
Rome,  as  mentioned  above.  But  a  nation's  woes  and  a 
dynasty's  crimes  did  not  weigh  much  in  Caesarian  Rome, 
where  selfishness  and  sensuality  over-balanced  every  an- 
cient virtue.  The  brief  and  bloody  campaign  {Polermi^) 
of  Varus  not  only  cost  thousands  of  lives,  and  millions  of 
property  destroyed  and  stolen  by  Romans  and  marauding 
Arabs,  but  also  a  portion  of  the  archives  in  the  temple  were 
destroyed  with  the  burning  cloisters  (5).  The  nation  bled 
from  a  thousand  wounds.  Now  the  sons  of  Herod  could 
return  to  take  possession  of  the  down-trodden  country, 

8.    Dissolution  of  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  campaign  of  Varus,  which  was  twenty-six  years 
after  Egypt  had  been  a  Roman  province,  and  the  last 
vestige  of  the  Greco-Macedonian  supremacy  had  disap- 
peared (6),  closed  also  the  Hillel  Sanhedrin,  and  opened  in 
the  history  of  Rabbinism  the  eighty  j^ears  of  the  two 
schools  of  Beth  Hillel  and  BethShammai  (□^iiroK'  bv  pm 
njB').  No  Sanhedrin  is  mentioned  any  more  in  the  sources, 
except  under  Agrippa  I.  and  during  the  war  before  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem.  The  Shamaites  began  their  opposition  to 
Hillel  and  his  school  by  re-enacting  the  laws  of  Jose  b. 
Joezer,  declaring  all  foreign  countries  and  imported  vessels 
unclean,  as  a  barrier  between  Hebrews  and  Gentiles,  and  an 
inducement  to  immigration  from  foreign  countries.  Hillel 
had  yielded  to  Shammai  and  his  school  in  many  points  re- 
lating to  Levitical  cleanness  (7),  and  was  obliged  also  to 
yield  to  that  extreme  measure,  for  the  Shamaites  were  in 
the  majority,  and  so  fanaticized  that  the  sword  was  drawn, 
and  Shammai  proposed  measures  still  more  extreme.  But 
Hillel  left  his  seat,  and,  like  an  humble  disciple,  sat  down  at 

(5)  Joseph.  Contra  Apion  i.  7.    See  Graetz  Vol.  III.   Note  21. 

(6)  Abodah  Sarah  8  h  and  paral.  passsages. 

(7)  Sabbath  14  b  wTn  bv  nNOlC  iin  hhn)  "XOt*^ 


THE    FRUITS   OF   DESPOTISM.  241 

the  feet  of  Shammai,  which  assuaged  the  excited  cham- 
pions, and  the  Sanhedrin  quietly  dissolved  itself  into  two 
schools.  "  This  day,"  saj^s  the  chronographer,  "  was  as  un- 
fortunate to  Israel  as  was  the  one  when  the  golden  calf  was 
made  "  (8).  Shammai  died  three  years  and  a  half  after  this 
event  (9),  hence  2  a.  c.  Then  the  Bath-lcol  announced  that 
the  laws  should  be  practiced  according  to  the  Hillel  de- 
cisions ;  but  the  Shamaites  did  not  yield  (10).  It  is  not 
ascertained  how  long  after  that  Hillel  died.  The  connec- 
tion of  these  violent  disputes  with  the  rebellions  after  the 
death  of  Herod  is  certain.  The  Shamaites  were  partisans 
of  Juda  of  Gamala,  and  ready  to  initiate  a  revolutionary 
movement  as  in  the  time  of  Mattathia  and  his  sons ;  while 
the  Hillel  men  were  the  advocates  of  peace  and  moderation. 

9.    The  Sons  of  Herod. 

In  the  same  year  (2  b.  c.)  the  sons  of  Herod  returned 
from  Rome.  Archelaus  took  up  his  residence  in  Jerusalem. 
Herod  Antipas  rebuilt  Sepphoris  and  Bethramphta,  calling 
the  latter  Julius,  and  making  the  former  his  residence,  till 
after  the  death  of  Augustus,  when  he  built  the  city  of 
.  Tiberias  on  lake  Genesareth.  There  and  in  the  neighboring 
Emmaus  were  the  hot  springs.  Tiberias  being  built  upon 
a  spot  of  many  sepulchres,  the  Hebrews  refused  to  dwell 
there,  so  that  Antipas  was  under  the  necessity  of  popu- 
lating it  with  foreigners,  and  forcing  Hebrews  to  take  up 
their  residence  in  that  unclean  city  (11).  Philip  took  up 
his  residence  at  Paneas,  at  the  fountains  of  the  Jordan, 
where  he  built  the  city  of  Cajsarea  (Philippi).  He  also 
made  a  city  of  Bethesda,  at  the  head  of  lake  Genesareth, 
and  called  it  Julia.  Among  these  princes  Philip  proved  to 
be  the  best  and  Archelaus  the  worst. 

10.     The  Government  of  Archelaus. 

Archelaus,  on  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  divorced  his  wife 
Mariamne  and  married  Glaphyra,  his  brother's  widow,  who 
had  children  by  her  first  husband.    This,  although  no  direct 


(8)  Sahhnth  17  a.  Tosephta  IhicJ.  I.  refers  to  a  later  date  as  the 
time  when  those  extreme  measures  were  adoi:)ted,  as  a  momentary 
compromise  of  the  two  schools. 

(9)  ^bni  -"Nn:^  f^^hn^  nvn?01  D^JEJ*  \:h^*  is  the  correct  version, 
Eruhin  13  6. 

(10)  Bezah20a. 

(11)  Antiq.  xviii.,  ii.  3. 


242  THE    FRUITS    OF    DESPOTISM. 

violation  of  law,  was  detestable  to  the  Plebrews  (12). 
He  removed  from  office  the  highpriest,  Joazar,  and  ap- 
pointed in  his  stead  his  brother,  Eleazar  Boethus,  who  was 
also  deposed  in  a  short  time  and  replaced  by  Jesus,  son  of 
Sie.  It  appears,  however,  that  he  also  ^^as  removed,  and 
Joazar  was  reappointed  (13),  so  that  the  respect  for  the 
temple  and  its  ancient  culte  was  weakeiied,  and  decreased 
steadily.  The  highpriests  were  Sadducees  and  the  people 
Pharisean.  Like  the  Sadducean  magistrates,  they  were 
obliged  to  conform  to  Pharisean  customs  and  laws  (14)  and 
to  play  the  hypocrite.  Archelaus  made  an  end  of  the  re- 
bellion. He  overpowered  Athronges,  captured  him,  and  his 
brother  surrendered.  He  also  had  a  plantation  of  palms, 
for  which  he  stole  the  water  from  the  village  of  Neara,  and 
built  a  town  on  his  plantation  which  he  called  Archelaus. 
But  this  is  all  that  is  known  of  him,  except  that  he  was  a 
barbarous  and  licentious  despot,  hated  by  many  and  loved 
by  none. 

11.    A  Spurious  Alexander. 

A  young  Hebrew,  brought  up  in  the  house  of  a  Roman 
freedman  at  Sidon,  resembled  INIariamne's  son,  Alexander. 
On  the  strength  of  this  resemblance  he  claimed  to  be  tliat 
very  man,  and  maintained  that  he  was  saved  when  his 
father  had  condemned  him  to  die  with  his  brother.  He 
now  claimed  the  crown  of  Judea.  Many  believed  his  story 
and  gave  him  support,  especially  the  Hebrews  of  Crete  and 
Melos,  who  enabled  him  to  make  his  appearance  in  Rome^ 
where  also  the  Roman  Jews  gave  him  their  support  and  re- 
ceived him  with  royal  lionors.  Anybody  but  Archelaus  was 
acceptable  to  the  Hebrews  in  and  outside  of  Palestine. 
Augustus,  however,  did  not  believe  the  story.  Investiga- 
tion, and  finally  self-confession,  exposed  the  spurious  Alex- 
ander, wlio  was  sent  to  an  imperial  ship  "  to  row  among 
the  mariners,"  while  those  Avho  had  designed  the  plot  were 
put  to  death,  and  the  deluded  people  escaped  with  a  mere 
disappointment. 

12.     Archelaus  Banished  to  Vienna. 

Nothing,  however,  could  save  Archelaus,  who  continued 
his  despotic  misrule  and  barbarity  in  Jerusalem.     His  own 

(12)  Antiq.  xvii.,  xiii.  1.  It  appears  that  Glaphyra  died  shortly 
after  this  marriage,  in  consequence  of  a  dream,  in  which  her  first 
husband  severely  rebuked  her  faithlessness;  although  the  dream 
may  have  been  a  i)opular  invention. 

(13)  Antiq.  xviii.,  i.  1. 

(14)  Antiq.  xviii.,  i.  4. 


THE   FRUITS   OF   DESPOTISM.  243 

kinsmen,  together  with  an  embassy  of  prominent  men  from 
Judea  and  Samaria,  gave  utterance  to  the  people's  griev- 
ances before  Augustus,  which  must  have  been  very  aggra- 
vating and  conclusive;  for  Augustus  ordered  Archelaus,  by 
his  Roman  resident,  to  appear  before  liim  immediately. 
Archelaus  had  a  dream,  as  despots  do,  and  Simon  the 
Essene,  interpreted  it,  as  Essenes.  informed  of  current 
events,  knew  how  to  interpret  dreams  (15) ;  and  the  dream 
of  wicked  Archelaus  proved  a  prophecy.  The  message  of 
Augustus  was  delivered  to  him  while  feasting  with  his 
friends,  and  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the  country  without 
adequate  preparations.  Arrived  in  Rome,  Augustus  heard 
his  case  and  found  him  guilty.  He  was  banished  to  Vienna 
in  France,  his  treasures  Avere  confiscated  by  Augustus,  and 
the  three  provinces  of  Judea,  Samaria  and  Idumea  were 
added  to  the  Roman  province  of  Syria,  nine  years  after 
Herod's  death  (6  a.  c).  Herod's  murderous  policy  bore  its 
legitimate  fruit.  Sixty-nine  years  after  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  by  Pompe}^,  the  Hebrew  people  were  sufhciently 
demoralized  by  military  despotism,  that  its  aristocracy 
surrendered  the  independence  of  a  liberty-loving  people  to 
Rome  without  offering  any  resistance.  It  was  not  the  peo- 
ple, it  was  its  aristocracy,  that  betrayed  it,  which  sur- 
rendered to  Rome. 


(15)  It  is  reported  in  the  Talmud  {Berachoth  55  b)  by  Rabbi  Banah, 
most  likely  Banus,  the  teacher  of  Josephus  (Life  3),  that  there  were 
in  Jerusalem  twenty-four  interpreters  of  dreams.  He  once  went  to 
all  of  them,  told  them  the  same  dream,  and  received  twenty-four  dif- 
ferent interpretations,  each  of  which  was  fulfilled  in  his  after  life; 
simply,  we  add,  because  he  interpreted  the  interpretation. 


yi.  Period— The  Rule  of  the  Procurators. 

During  the  reign  of  the  five  emperors,  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Caligula, 
Claudius  and  Nero  (7  to  68  a.  c),  thirteen  Roman  Procurators, 
under  the  President  of  Syria,  governed  Judea  and  its  annexed 
provinces,  exceptiDg  only  the  short  period  under  Claudius,  when 
Agrippa  I.  was  king.  All  Roman  provinces,  organized  by  Augus- 
tus, were  either  senatorial  or  imperial,  the  former  of  which  were 
governed  by  the  senate  and  the  latter  by  the  emperor,  i.  e.,  the 
latter  were  under  direct  military  rule.  So  was  Syria  and  so  was 
Judea,  where  the  legions  engaged  in  making  war  on  Parthia,  or 
watching  it,  were  stationed.  A  military  government  is  always 
despotic.  The  rights  of  man  are  of  secondary  consideration. 
The  will  or  whim  of  the  commander  is  law.  Therefore,  Syria, 
hence  also  Judea,  was  one  of  the  most  oppressed  provinces  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Besides,  the  wealth  of  Syria,  and  especially  of 
Judea,  was  another  cause  of  continual  oppression,  bloodshed  and 
irritation  of  the  masses  to  riots,  in  order  to  have  a  preterse  for 
slaying  the  rich  and  confiscating  their  property,  or  despoiling 
public  institutions.  The  Hebrews,  with  their  democratic  laws 
and  institutions,  and  their  inflexible  attachment  to  law  and 
liberty,  were  not  easily  bent  under  the  lawless  foreign  yoke. 
Therefore  insurrections,  on  a  small  or  large  scale,  were  perpetual 
during  this  period,  and  led  at  last  to  a  general  war  of  indei)end- 
ence.  There  were  in  the  provinces  three  superior  officers:  First, 
the  Proconsul,  or  President,  whose  power,  except  in  senatorial 
provinces,  was  absolute,  and  who  was  responsible  to  the  emperor 
only ;  second,  the  Praetor,  who  was  the  actual  civil  governor  and 
chief  justice  of  the  province  under  the  Proconsul ;  and  third,  the 
Procurator,  who  governed  a  part  of  the  province  under  a  Pro- 
consul. The  governors  of  Judea  under  the  Proconsul  of  Syria 
had  diflerent  titles  at  different  times,  but  wei-e  always  the  com- 
manders of  the  troops,  the  financial  agents  of  the  emperor  and 
the  chief  judges  of  the  country.  The  people  had  no  share  what- 
ever in  its  own  government.  How  this  irritated  and  demoralized 
the  Hebrews,  will  be  narrated  in  the  following  chapters : 


THE   MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  245 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


The  Messiaiiio  Commotion. 


1.     The  Census. 

Rome  began  its  dominion  in  Judea  with  the  confiscation 
of  the  property  and  treasures  of  ArcheUius,  and  taking  a 
census  of  all  people  and  property  to  be  taxed.  Coponius 
was  appointed  Procurator  and  P.  Sulpicius  Quirinus 
(Cyrenius),  was  sent  to  take  the  census  (1).  It  took  the 
whole  influence  of  the  highpriest,  Joazar  Boethus,  to  per- 
suade the  majority  of  the  people  to  submit  quietly  to  this 
innovation,  which  changed  independent  Palestine  into  a 
Roman  province.  A  minority,  however,  viewed  it  in  its 
proper  light,  as  an  introduction  of  slavery.  Juda  of 
Galilee  (2),  supported  by  a  Pharisean  teacher,  whose  name 
was  Zadok,  stood  at  the  head  of  this  party  and  counseled 
resistance  to  that  aggression.  They  met  with  no  success  in 
regard  to  the  census,  which  was  taken  anyhow,  but  they 
succeeded  in  establishing  the  party  of  Zealots  (d'n:p))  which 

(1)  According  to  Luke  this  was  the  time  when  Jesus  of  "Nazareth 
was  born  (Lukeii.),  while  according  to  First  Gospel  of  the  Infancy, 
first  chapter,  he  was  bora  309  of  the  s.  e.,  ten  years  before  this.  But 
Luke's  date  is  also  uncertain,  because:  a.  The  narrative  is  connected 
with  the  appearance  of  an  angel  to  some  shepherds,  and  reports 
other  niirac'es,  which,  if  true,  Matthew  or  other  evangelists  must 
have  narrated,  h.  It  makes  Jesus  a  son  of  David,  which  he  denied 
being  (Mark  xii.  35  to  37).  c.  The  whole  story  of  Jesus  being  born 
in  Bethlehem  and  not  in  Nazareth  is  spurious,  in  order  to  fulfill  a 
Scriptural  passage,  misunderstood  alike  by  Jews  and  Gentiles  (Micah 
v.  1.  See  Tarqum  Joriaihan).  It  is  not  known  when  or  where  Jesus 
was  born ;  although  Matthew,  referring  to  Herod,  may  have  meant 
Archelaus,  as  all  successors  of  Herod  were  also  called  Herod. 

(2)  Judah  the  Gali'ean,  Judah  the  Gaulanite,  and  Judah  of 
Gamala,  are  identical.  It  appears  that  he  was  born  in  Gamala,  west 
of  lake  Genesareth  and  lived  in  Galilee. 


246  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

never  submitted,  but  nourished  and  promulgated  implaca- 
ble hatred  of  Rome,  its  agents  and  partisans.  Included  in 
these  hated  classes  were  all  those  who  held  office  under  the 
Romans,  as  well  as  the  publicans  and  their  collectors,  foreign 
harlots  and  abused  men,  called  "  sinners,"  together  with  all 
other  camp-followers  of  the  Romans. 

2.     The  Sects. 

Political  i^arties,  in  consequence  of  the  reign  of  abso- 
lutism, degenerated  into  sects  and  schools.  The  Sadducees, 
under  the  tuition  of  the  Boethites,  gradually  denied  im- 
mortality, future  reward  or  punishment  and  Providence. 
They  became  Stoics,  who  adhered  to  the  Laws  of  Moses  and 
some  of  the  ancient  traditions  and  practices.  The  Essenes 
had  become  sanctimonious  mystics,  who  maintained  they 
knew  all  about  the  angels  and  secret  arts,  to  heal  the  sick, 
to  expound  dreams,  and  to  prophes}'.  They  cultivated  the 
soil,  raised  medicinal  plants,  wore  the  Levitical  garments, 
practiced  the  entire  Levitical  laws  in  their  private  lives, 
baptized  themselves  every  morning  by  immersion,  and 
washed  their  hands  before  every  meal  as  the  priest  did  on 
entering  the  sanctuary,  looked  upon  their  tables  as  altars, 
their  meals  as  sacrifices,  and  each  imagined  himself  to  be 
prince,  priest  and  prophet.  Tliey  sent  gifts  to  the  temple, 
but  made  no  sacrifices,  and  kept  aloof  from  all  other  Israel- 
ites whose  food  and  persons  they  considered  unclean.  Thej'' 
had  introduced  in  their  order  secrets  of  three  grades,  sub- 
jected new-comers  to  hard  jirobations  and  tutelage,  and 
were  extreme  Pharisees  with  severe  practices  and  sancti- 
monious mysteries.  They  claimed  to  be  in  possession  of 
ancient  traditions  reaching  up  to  Moses,  which  was  cer- 
tainly not  the  case,  as  they  originated  in  the  Maccabean 
revolution,  and  remained  unnoticed  to  the  time  of  Jonathan. 
They  believed  in  the  existence  of  angels,  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  and  the  exclusive  control  of  Providence  over 
all  human  actions.  They  had  nothing  in  common  with  any 
class  of  Gentile  philosophers,  grew  out  of  the  Hebrew  mind 
entirely,  and  were  the  extreme  asceticists  given  to  a  .  con- 
templative life  and  mystic  and  allegoric  expounding  of 
Scriptures.  With  them  the  Kahhala  originates,  but  the 
precise  nature  of  their  teachings  is  unknown.  Besides  the 
Sadducees  and  Essenes,  there  were  the  Ilerodians,  who,  per- 
haps, were  merely  a  political  party  that  wanted  a  Herodian 
at  the  head  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy.  But  all  these  sects 
were  mere  abnormities,  whose  influence  upon  the  Hebrew 


THE    MESSIAXIC    COMMOTION.  247 

people  in  Palestine  and  outside  thereof  was  insignificant. 
The  Hebrew  people  were  Pharisean  (3). 

3.     The  Two  Pharisean  Parties. 

The    Sanhedrin  being  dissolved    the    Pharisean    scribes 
were  divided  into  the  two  schools  of  Beth  HiLLELand  Beth 
Shammai.     There  was  no  authority  left  to  decide  their  con- 
troversies or  to  ordain  teachers,  and   each   school  did  it  on 
its  own   account,  so  partisans,  unprepared  for  this  dignity, 
received_  the  ordination  (4).     Although,  in  the  main,  they 
did  not  impose  upon  the  people,  or  even  upon  themselves, 
the  laws  on  which  they  diflered   (5) ;   nor  did  they  discuss 
laws  of  vital  importance  to  the  public.     They  were  chiefly 
engaged  in  scholastic  discussions  to  find  Scriptural  grounds 
for  existing  customs.     Still  tliey  promulgated  uncertainty 
in    private    life,  especially    in    religious    observances    and 
formulas,  marriage  laws,  and  the  all-important  question  of 
Levitical  cleanness  (6).     With  the  census   under  Quirinus, 
the  two  schools,  already  divided    in  political  opinions,  as- 
sumed the  character   of    two   political  parties.     The  Hillel 
Pharisees  were  the  men   of  peace,  humanity  and  j)atience. 
Like  their  master,  they  looked  upon  humanity  as  the  main 
object  of  the  law,  and  like  the  older  Pharisees,  they  did  not 
care  too  much  about  the  political    afiairs  of  the   country. 
The  profane  business  of  governing  the  State  and  collecting 
the  taxes  was  with  them  a  question  of  minor  importance. 
The  maintenance  of  the  peace,  the  mission  of  Israel  to  ^Jre- 
serveand  promulgate  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  study  of 
the  Law  and  the  practice  of  liumane  deeds,  were  paramount 
with   them.     Therefore,  with    the   Sadducees    and  Essenes 
they  maintaiJ^d  the  pe'ace  when  the  census  was  taken.     The 
Shammai   men,  however,  wlio  took   the    whole    Law   and 
traditions    with  all  their  remote    logical  sequences  as  the 
Israelite's  divine  guide,  the  preservation  and  promulgation 
thereof  as  his  paramount  duty,  looked  upon  every  submis- 
sion  to    foreign  rulers,  and  every  payment  of    tribute  or 


(3)  Josephus' Antiq.  xiii.,  V.  9;  xviii.,  i.  2.  Wars  II.  viii.  2.  J.J. 
13ellermann's  Essaer  and  Therapeuten.  Dr.  Zachary  Frankel's 
MoNATsscHRiFT  1846,  1855;  Dr.  Ah.  Geiger's  Ursciirift  p.  104,  a'so 
his  Pharis.  and  Sadd.     J.  AVellbausen's  Pharisaeer  and  Sadducaeer. 

(4)  Sanhfdria  88  h,  historical  report  of  R.  Jose  \rhp''  nnZlDK'O 
refers  to  the  abolition  of  the  ordination  by  the  Nassi  and  his  as- 
sociates. 

(5)  MisHNAH  Yehamoth  i,  4. 

(6)  Darkei  Ham-mishnah  p.  55, 


248  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

taxes  to  a  foreign  prince,  as  a  flagrant  violation  of 
the  Law,  which  must  be  resisted  with  all  means  at 
the  nation's  command,  at  all  hazards  and  sacrifices. 
Therefore,  they  identified  themselves  with  the  demo- 
crats led  by  Juda  of  Galilee,  and  also  resisted  the- 
taking  of  the  census,  as  the  introduction  of  a  foreign 
government  and  the  abolition  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Failing  in  this  attempt,  they  still  remained  a  politi- 
cal party  of  distinct  and  stern  principles,  whose  main 
object  was  the  restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  also 
in  its  political  principles ;  God  to  be  the  only  Ruler  and 
Lord  of  Israel,  and  His  Law  the  sovereign  guide  of  all. 
The  loss  of  property  or  life  could  be  of  no  consideration  in 
the  combat  for  Ihe  highest  and  holiest  treasure  of  Israel ;  as 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  in  heaven  and  eternity  as  well  as  in 
time  and  on  earth,  and  death  is  a  mere  transition  from  time 
to  eternity.  This  doctrine  made  of  them  champions  of 
liberty,  death-defying  heroes,  glaring  fanatics  and  uncom- 
promising patriots,  whose  hatred  against  foreign  customs, 
laws,  languages  and  persons  grew  violently  with  the  progress 
of  the  Roman  oppression  and  the  incursions  of  Syrians. 
Therefore  they  were  called  Zealots  (  o^^jp),  although,  like 
the  Hillel  men,  they  were  Pharisees. 

4.     The  Temple  and  its  Officers. 

The  temple  was  entirely  in  the  poAver  of  the  Roman? 
procurator.  He  held  Fort  Antonio,  which  commanded  the 
temple  and  contained  the  sacerdotal  vestments  of  the  high- 
priest  as  a  sort  of  hostage.  If  the  highpriest  was  to  pre- 
side over  the  services,  his  official  vestments  had  first  to  be 
obtained  of  the  commander  of  Fort  Antonio.  Besides,  the 
procurator  appointed  and  removed  the  highp|iest,  hence  all 
the  offices  in  the  temple  were  under  his  control  and  de- 
pendent on  his  will,  and  could  have  been  Roman  tools 
only.  Traditions  concerning  the  highpriests  and  chief- 
priests  of  this  period  are  very  severe.  With  the  exception 
of  the  house  of  Fabi,  they  were  denounced  as  wicked  men 
(7) ;  although  there  certainly  were  some  good  and  faithful 
men  among  them  and  their  subordinates.  In  consequence 
of  their  ignorance,  they  surrounded  themselves  with  scribes 
learned  in  the  laws  and  customs,  and  were  watched  by  the 
"  Commoners  "  (noyo  ''K'Jn),  who  were  Pharisees.  Therefore, 
the  authors  of  the  New  Testament  story  group  to- 
gether in  the  temple  priests,  scribes  and  Pharisees.     These 

(7)    SiPHRi,  Phineas;  Yerushalmi,  Yoma  i.  1 ;  Pesachim  57  a  from 

TOSEPHTA. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  249 

Pharisean  Commoners,  however,  were  replaced  every 
\veek  by  other  colleagues.  The  sanctuary  and  the  sac- 
rificial culte  gradually  lost  their  influence  so  that  a 
short  time  after  Hillel  the  temple  was  frequently  with- 
out any  visitors  (8).  In  the  same  ratio,  however, 
the  authority  of  the  scribes  grew  among  the  people ;  the 
teacher  took  the  place  of  the  priest  (9)  and  the  study 
of  the  Law  replaced  the  sacrifices  (10).  Still,  during  the 
high  feasts,  the  pilgrims  crowded  the  temple,  the  city  and 
suburbs,  and  the  priests,  as  also  did  Josephus  Flavins,  con- 
tinued to  consider  themselves,  the  temple,  and  the  sacri- 
ficial culte  the  soul  of  Israel ;  and  their  power  and  influence 
were  great  to  the  very  last,  especially  among  the  pilgrims. 

5.     Procuratoes  Under  Augustus. 

Augustus  (from  7  to  14  a.  c.)  sent  three  Procurators  to- 
Judea — Coponius  (7  a.  c),  M.  Ambivius  (10  a,  c.)  and 
Annus  Rufus  (14  a.  c).  No  acts  of  particular  violence  by 
these  Procurators  have  been  recorded.  The  country  was 
quiet.  This  was  also  the  case  in  the  other  provinces  of 
Palestine  under  the  government  of  Antipas  and  Philip,  wha 
spent  their  time  and  treasures  in  building  cities,  as  we 
have  mentioned  before.  Under  the  administration  of 
Coponius  some  sectarian  Samaritans  played  a  malicious 
trick  on  the  Hebrews.  It  was  customary  that  on  Passover 
the  priests  opened  the  gates  of  the  temple  shortly  after 
midnight.  Some  of  those  Samaritans  came  early  to  the 
temple  and  threw  human  bones  about  the  cloisters.  This 
did  not  disturb  the  divine  service,  as  the  Samaritans,  per- 
haps, believed  it  would;  still  it  gave  rise  to  the  unjust 
mandate  on  the  part  of  the  priests  to  exclude  all  Samari- 
tans from  the  temple.  Under  the  administration  of 
Ambivius,  Salome,  the  sister  of  Herod,  died  (12  a.  c). 
She  willed  her  possessions  to  Julia,  the  wife  of  Augustus, 
and  to  her  countrymen  she  left  the  memorial  of  her 
infamy. 

6.     Procurators  Under  Tiberius. 

In  August,  14  A.  c,  the  emperor  Augustus  died,  and  on 
the   nineteenth  day   of  that  month  his   stepson,   Tiberius 

(8)  Yerushalmi,  Hagiriah  ii.  3  and  Tosephta  ibid. 

(9)  Yerushalmi,  Beraclwth  end  D^Jiyn  whv  D"'2")rD  D'^Opn  "'T'oijn; 
Peah,  Mishnah  i ;  Aboth  iv.  12  and  iii.  2  to  9 ;  jBaba  Meziah  ii.  11. 

(10)     Tosephta,  Demai  ii.,  ^Ji  DIpD  hv  ".ilV-l  X^^V  (D"'3n3n)  fXti'  pDU 

Mechilta,  Bachodesh  '31  CEHpn  PDN^  ^N"it^'  ^D  Vn  J^IXt 


250  THE   MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

Nero,  the  son  of  Julia,  succeeded  him  as  Roman  Emperor. 
Like  Julius  Ca3sar,  the  dead  Augustus  also  was  deified, 
priests  were  apjjointed  to  worship  him,  and  his  statue  was 
erected  everywhere  among  the  other  idols  (11).  However 
vile,  profligate  and  despotic  Tiherius  became  during  the 
second  period  of  his  reign,  he  started  out  with  noble  inten- 
tions. "  In  the  provinces  no  new  burdens  were  imposed, 
and  the  old  duties  were  collected  without  cruelty  or  extor- 
tion. Corporal  punishment  was  never  inflicted,  and  confisca- 
tion of  men's  effects  was  a  thing  unknown  "  (12).  Therefore, 
the  first  Procurator  he  sent  to  Judea,  Valerius  Gratus,  was 
a  man  of  probity,  who  left  no  record  of  maladministration, 
nor  was  there  any  sedition  among  the  peoj^Ie  during  the 
eleven  years  of  his  official  term,  although  he  appointed  and 
deposed  no  less  than  five  highpriests.  But  after  a  few 
years  of  a  tranquil  reign,  Tiberius  threw  off"  the  mask.  By 
acts  of  cruelty  he  harrassed  the  people  'of  Rome  as  well  as 
of  the  provinces,  and  by  his  authority  encouraged  the 
tyranny  of  his  subordinates.  A  wicked  man,  Aelius 
Sejanus,  ingratiated  himself  in  the  emperor's  favor  and 
confidence,  and  rose  to  supreme  power  as  his  prime  minis- 
ter. Sejan  put  in  power  his  own  coadjutors  and  most 
obedient  tools,  bwth  in  Rome  and  the  provinces.  One  of 
the  latter  was  Pontius  Pilate,  supposed  to  have  been  a  na- 
tive of  Vienna  in  France,  Avhom  he  sent  to  Judea  to  replace 
Oratus  as  Procurator  of  that  country  (25  a.  c).  With  this 
Sejan-like  representative  of  the  foreign  ruler  the  misfor- 
tunes of  the  Hebrews  in  Judea  increased  rapidly. 

7.     Character  op  Pontius  Pilate. 

A  cotemporary  of  Pontius  Pilate  was  the  Hebrew  phil- 
osopher, Philo,  of  Alexandria.  He  left  the  following  de- 
scription of  that  Procurator  (13) :  "  One  day  representations 
were  made  to  him  (Pilate) ;  but  as  that  man  was  of  an 
impetuous  and  stubborn  disposition,  he  would  not  listen. 
He  was  then  told,  with  suggestive  stress,  to  desist  from 
irritating  to  sedition  and  war,  abstain  from  making  peace 
imjwssible.  It  is  the  will  of  Tiberius  that  our  laws  be  re- 
spected. If  thou  art  in  possession  of  a  new  edict  or  epistle, 
let  us  know  it,  and  we  Avill  instantly  send  a  deputation  to 


(11)  Tacitus  Annals  I,  liv.,  Ixxiii.  and  Ixxiv. 

(12)  Ibid,  iv.,  vi. 

(13)  Philo,  De  virtut.  et  legal.  Cai. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTIOX.  251 

Kome.  These  words  provoked  the  Procurator  so  much 
the  more,  since  he  aj)prehended  that  an  embassy  to  Rome 
must  expose  all  his  crimes,  the  venality  of  his  sentences, 
his  rapacity,  the  ruin  of  whole  families,  all  the  infamies 
whose  author  he  was,  the  execution  of  many  persons  with- 
out process  of  law,  the  excess  of  cruelties  of  all  descrip- 
tions." No  law  was  in  his  way,  no  princii)le  of  honor  or 
integrity  incumbered  him,  treaties  and  secured  rights  were 
no  limitations  to  him ;  he  did  anything  to  satisfy  his  greed 
and  rapacity,  to  abolish  or  override  the  laws  and  customs 
of  the  land,  and  to  irritate  seditions  for  the  sake  of  pre- 
tenses for  carnage  and  confiscation,  and  for  demoralizing 
and  bending  the  popular  will  to  servile  submission. 

8.     Abolition  of  the  Law. 

Pontius  Pilate  began  his  administration  in  Judea  with 
an  attempt  "to  abolish  the  Jewish  law,"  exactly  as  Tiberius, 
or  his  minister,  Sejan,  did  in  Rome.     The  religion  and  laws 
of  the  Hebrews  had  rapidly  spread  over  the  Roman  Empire 
by  the  Greco-Hebrew  literature  and  by  the  numerous  He- 
brew colonies  all  over  the  empire,  to  Avhom  the  edicts  of 
Julius  Cffisar  had  secured    the  Roman   citizenship  and  the 
free  exercise  of  their   religion.     The  influence  of  Judaism 
upon  declining  Heathenism  became  evident  everywhere  and 
especiiillv  in  Rome,  by  the  large  numbers  of  proselytes  who 
publicly  or  privately  confessed  Judaism,  and  the  numerous 
"devout  Gentiles"  all  over  the  empire.     The  more  one  class 
of  Gentiles  inclined  to  Judaism,  the  more,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  fanaticism   and  jealousy  of  the   Pagans   were  aroused 
against  the    Hebrews    and    their   laws.     This   spirit   broke 
forth  in  various  cities,  as  we  have  seen  before,  and  became 
afterward  the  source  of  calamity  to  the  Hebrews,  especially 
in    Alexandria,  and    other  centers    of    ancient    Paganism 
Hitherto    the    Roman    emperors    and    the    Jewish     kings 
(Hyrcan  and  Herod)   had   protected  the  foreign   Hebrews. 
But  Tiberius  turned  against  them,  and  none   was  left  to 
protect  them.     Therefore,   Pilate  initiated  his  administra- 
tion   in    Judea  with    the    attempt  to  abolish    the    Jewish 
laws  (14).     He  removed  the  army  from   Ca^sarea  to  Jeru- 
snlem,  and  it  entered  the  city  in   the  night  time,  and  dis- 
played all  its  ensigns  with  the  effigies  of  the  deified  Caesars, 


(14)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  iii. 


252  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

the  crucified  man  (15)  and  tlie  various  symbols  of  idolatry. 
The  citizens  of  Jerusalem  were  amazed  and  exasperated  at 
the  audacious  affront  and  violation  of  law  and  treaties.  In 
large  numbers  they  went  to  Cajsarea  to  remonstrate  with 
Pilate,  but  he  would  not  listen  to  them.  On  the  sixth  day 
of  their  remonstrance,  when  they  appeared  again  before- 
Pilate,  they  were  surrounded  by  soldiers,  and  immediate 
death  was  threatened  to  the  petitioning  multitude  if  they 
Avould  not  leave  instantly.  "  But  they  threw  themselves 
upon  the  ground,  and  laid  their  necks  bare,  and  said  they 
would  accept  death  very  willingly,  rather  than  see  the 
wisdom  of  their  laws  transgressed."  Pilate  yielded.  He 
commanded  the  images  to  be  carried  back  from  Jerusalem 
to  Csesarea.  The  garrison,  it  appears,  remained  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  the  laws  of  the  land  remained  suspended  as  long 
as  Pilate  was  Procurator.  This  is  the  period  called  in  the 
traditions,  "  Forty  years  before  the  destruction  of  the  tem- 
ple," when  the  administration  of  the  penal  law  was  taken 
entirely  out  of  the  nation's  hands  and  held  by  the  Procu- 
rator and  his  officers ;  when  the  two  lesser  Sanhedrin  alsa 
left  the  temple  mount.  No  Sanhedrin  existed  any  longer^ 
although  Simon,  Hillel's  son,  may  have  been  the  recognized 
head  of  the  Hillel  school,  and  considered  by  that  party  the 
JVassi  and  expositor  of  the  traditions.  The  destruction 
of  the  temple  was  then  prophesied  by  those  who  understood 
the  political  situation,  as  did  Rabbi  Jochanan  b.  Saccai,  and 
knew  that  in  the  struggle  thus  initiated,  either  Judaism  or 
Heathenism  would  have  to  succumb  at  last ;  and  Rome 
was  all-mighty  (16). 

9.     A  Massacre  of  Non-Combatants. 

The  hatred  of  Pilate  and  the  people  was  mutual  and 
violent.  He  missed  no  opportunity  for  massacre  and  con- 
fiscation, and  drove  people  to  seditions  because  each  offered 
him  a  fine  harvest.  Private  estates  being  insufficient  ta 
gratify  his  rapacity,  he  seized  the  temple  treasures  under 
the  pretext   of    improving  the   water-works  of  Jerusalem ; 

(15)  See  our  "  Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  p.  101.  "  Your 
victorious  trophies  not  only  represent  a  simple  cross,  but  a  cross  with 
a  man  ui)on  it  "  (Reeves'  Apologies  Vol.  I.  p.  139),  a  Christian  teacher 
said  afterward  to  the  Romans.  Rebels  were  crucified,  therefore,  the 
cross  and  the  man  on  it  was  one  of  the  Roman  troi^hies,  which  was 
in  aftertimes  adopted  as  a  Christian  trophy.  This  must  have  been 
esiiecially  repugnant  to  the  Hebrews,  because  it  reminded  them  of 
the  fate  of  the  last  Asmonean  kiug,  Antigonus,  crucified  by  Marc 
Antony. 

(16)  Yoma  39  b. 


THE   MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  253 

although  that  money  did  not  belong  to  the  city,  and  he,  in 
his  official  capacity,  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  either. 
The  people  loudly  remonstrated  against  the  sacrilege  and 
abuse  of  authority.  "When  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  many 
appeared  before  his  judgment  seat,  and  gave  free  utterance 
to  their  grievances.  Pilate  responded  by  another  crime. 
He  commanded  his  soldiers  and  spies  to  wear  the  national 
cloaks,  to  hide  under  them  heavy  clubs,  and  use  them 
freely  at  a  given  signal.  When  next  day  the  multitude 
again  approached  the  judgment  seat,  the  signal  Avas  given, 
and  the  clubs  were  freely  used  upon  the  unarmed  and  un- 
prepared multitude.  A  large  number  of  them  were  trampled 
to  death  under  the  feet  of  the  amazed  and  terrified  multi- 
tude, and  another  number  of  them  died  in  consequence  of 
the  blows  received  (17.) 

10.     Slaughter  op  Samaritans  and  Galileans. 

The  outrages  perpetrated  by  Pilate  gave  rise  to  many  a 
prophet  and  savior  besides  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  One  of  them,  a  Samaritan,  Avhose  name  is  not 
recorded,  (18),  roused  the  people,  "  not  in  order  to  revolt 
against  the  Romans,  but  to  escape  the  violence  of  Pilate,"  as 
his  advocates  maintained.  He  called  the  patriots  to  Mount 
Gerizzim,  and  promised  them  as  a  proof  of  his  divine  mis- 
sion, to  show  them  the  sacred  vessels  and  the  ark  made  by 
Moses,  which,  according  to  the  Samaritan  tradition,  were 
buried  on  Mount  Gerizzim  (19).  Many  of  them,  both 
Samaritans  and  Galileans,  came  thither  armed,  and  met  at 
the  village  of  Tirathaba,  Avith  the  intention  of  ascending 
Gerizzim  in  a  grand  procession.  Pilate  sent  to  the  spot  his 
soldiers,  who  took  possession  of  the  strategic  points,  at- 
tacked the  pilgrims  in  the  village  Avhile  they  made  sacrifices, 
slew  a  number  of  tliem  and  put  the  others  to  flight.  Many 
of  them  Avere  captured,  and  the  principal  men  Avere  exe- 
cuted by  order  of  Pilate.  This,  hoAvever,  Avas  one  of  the 
last   of    Pilate's  crimes.     An  embassy  of  Samaritans  (20) 

(17)  Wars  ii.,  ix.  4.     Antiq.  xviii.,  iii.  2. 

(18)  Compare  Josephns'  Antiq.  xviii.,  iv.  1  to  Luke  xiii.  1. 

(19)  Ac(X)rding  to  II.  Maccabees  ii  4  to  7  the  Prophet  Jeremiah 
Lid  the  ark  in  tlie  cave  upon  Mount  Nebo.  Otlier  oj)inions  on  this 
subject  in  the  Talmud  Yoma  53  b. 

(20)  Josephus  mentions  in  this  connection  a  Samaritan  senate,  a 
body  of  wliich  neitlier  he  nor  any  Samaritan  source  has  an  account. 
Then  lie  drops  the  embassy  and  speaks  only  of  the  "  accusation  of  the 
Jews"  auainst  Pilate.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  embassy  came 
from  Sebaste,  which  Avas  inhabited  l)y  Pagans,  Avlio  supported  the 
HebreAVS  in  their  accusation  against  Pilate. 


254  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION, 

supported  the  Hebrews  before  Vitellius,  the  jiresident  of 
Syria,  and  Pilate  was  ordered  to  Rome  to  answer  before  the 
emperor  for  his  outrages  (21).  But  it  was  not  his  very  last 
crime,  as  we  shall  narrate  below,  after  we  shnll  have  re- 
viewed the  fate  of  the  Roman  Hebrews  under  Tiberius. 

11.     Expulsion  of  the  Hebrews  from  Rome. 

The  number  of  Hebrews  in  Rome  had  been  largely 
augmented  by  captives  of  war  sent  there,  who  were  ran- 
somed by  their  brethren,  and  by  immigration  from  tlie 
various  provinces ;  so  that  there  were  actually  two  classes 
of  them,  citizens  and  freedmen.  They  made  use  of  the 
privileges  granted  them  by  Julius  Csesar,  not  only  in  adhering 
to  their  religion  and  laws,  but  also  in  making  proselytes  from 
among  all  classes  of  Romans  ;  so  that  Horace  speaks  of 
"  proselytizing  Jews,"  and  of  their  Sabbath  which  his 
friend,  Fuscus,  would  not  violate  because  he  was  "  one  of 
the  many  "  who  observed  it.  Ovid  also,  in  his  Art  of  Love, 
speaks  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  as  being  largely  observed  by 
Roman  women ;  and  Seneca  found  it  necessary  to  censure 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  useless  institution,  al- 
though he  felt  bound  to  admit  of  the  Hebrews,  "  the  con- 
quered have  given  laws  to  the  conquerors."  It  was  no  rare 
case  with  Roman  women  of  high  rank  to  send  gifts  to  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem.  It  will  not  appear  strange  that  with 
the  great  number  of  Hebrews  coming  to  Rome  there  were 
also  hagglers,  chaffers,  beggars,  soothsayers,  interpreters  of 
dreams,  men  and  women  who  worked  miracles,  and  other 
mercenary  impostors.  One  of  them,  says  Josephus  (22), 
who  had  been  driven  out  of  his  country  by  charges  for 
transgressing  the  Law,  assumed  in  Rome  the  airs  of  a  great 
teacher  of  the  Law,  and,  in  company  with  three  other 
rogues,  persuaded  Fulvia,  a  Roman  proselyte,  to  send 
jjurple  and  gold  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  im- 
postors   kept    those    gifts.     The    husband   complained  to 

(21)  Tiberius  died  March  16,  37  a.  c,  before  Pilate  reached  Rome, 
hence  the  latter  left  Palestine  in  the  fall  of  3fi  a.  c.  He  was  ordered 
to  Rome  by  Vitellius  after  the  massacre  at  Tirathaba,  and  partly  in 
consequence  thereof.  According  to  Luke  xiii.  1,  Jesus  heard  of  "that 
massacre,  which  must  have  taken  place  in  the  autumn  of  35  or  early  in 
thesprii'g  of  36  a.  c.  ;  consequently  the  death  of  Jesus  must  have 
occurred  in  the  spring  of  36  a.  c,  when  he,  according  to  Luke,  was 
about  thirty  years  o'd  (Luke  iii.  23),  for  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
he  was  put  to  death  shortly  after  his  disciples  had  proclaimed  him 
the  Messiah. 

(22)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  iii.  5. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  255 

Tiberius,  and  this,  says  Josephus,  was  the  cause  of  the 
Hebrews'  expulsion  from  Rome.  But  this  narration  does 
not  agree  with  those  of  Suetonius  and  Tacitus  (23).  With 
them  tl:ie  cause  was  simply  the  rapid  spread  of  Judaism 
by  Palestinian  and  Egyptian  Hebrews,  which  caused  the 
senate  to  enact  a  decree  against  them.  Four  thousand  of  the 
young  Hebrews  and  proselytes  were  sent  to  the  pestilential 
Island  of  Sardinia,  and  the  remaining  worshipers  of 
Jehovah  were  ordered,  at  a  certain  day,  to  depart  out  of 
Italy,  unless  before  that  time  they  renounced  their  religion, 
and  burnt  the  vestment  and  vessels  used  in  their  sacred 
rites.  Slavery  was  threatened  to  all  who  violated  the  man- 
date. So  the  decrees  of  Julius  Caesar  were  set  at  naught  in 
the  capital,  and  the  Hebrews  all  over  Italy,  together  with 
all  their  proselytes,  were  outlaAved.  This  fact  must  be  taken 
in  connection  with  the  malicious  attempts  of  Pontius  Pilate 
in  Judea  to  abolish  the  LaA\  and  to  crush  the  people,  in 
order  to  comprehend  the  popular  perturbation  caused  by 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

12.     Causes  of  Rigid  Asceticism. 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  being  thus  assailed  and  en- 
dangered from  without  and  Avithin,  its  sanctuarj'  being  the 
citadel  of  the  invader  and  its  priesthood  the  tool  of  foreign 
rulers,  its  laws  defied  by  soldiers  and  pubHcans,  and  its 
faithful  children  reviled  and  oppressed  both  abroad  and  at 
home ;  the  self-conscious  spirit  of  the  Hebrews  broke  forth 
in  many  violent  eruptions.  The  first  question  naturally 
was.  Why  does  God  bring  all  this  misery  on  Hi^  chosen 
people?  On  account  of  its  sins,  was  the  first  reply  of  rigid 
teachers  who  held  the  doctrine,  "  No  death  without  sin,  no 
pain  without  iniquity."  The  restoration  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  therefore,  depends  on  repentance  and  the  ex- 
tinction of  sin;  so  that  the  cause  of  the  present  afflictions 
be  removed,  the  grace  of  God  regained,  and  His  kingdom  be 
restored.  The  rehgious  enterprise  of  rousing_  people  to  re- 
pentance of  misdeeds  and  atonement  of  sins  was  of  a 
patriotic  origin.  The  Levitical  priesthood  and  the  sacrifices 
being  no  longer  considered  efficient,  other  means  were 
adopted  ;  and  those  other  means  were  practices  oi  stern 
righteousness  and  asceticism,  rigidness  in  devotions  and 
mortifications,  to  which  the  Hebrews  always  inclined  in 
times  of  public  calamities. 


(23)     Suet,  in  Tiber  xxxvi.  and  Tacitus  in  Annals  II.  Ixxxv. 


256  the  messianic  commotion. 

13.     John  the  Baptist. 

One  of  those  who  preached  this  doctrine  was  John  the 
Baptist  (24).  He  was  of  priestly  extraction,  and  had  his 
home  at  Bethahra,  beyond  Jordan.  There  in  a  retired  spot 
he  taught  his  dire  asceticism  as  the  means  of  restoring  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  He  prayed  and  fasted  much,  wore 
coarse  garments,  and  tauglit  his  disciples  to  do  the  same. 
Bathing  in  cold  water  was  considered  one  of  the  mortifica- 
tions by  which  sin  is  overcome  (nni:j>  >Sy3  n^'3o)-  Bathing 
in  the  Jordan  had  the  particular  advaalago  of  having  been 
recommended  to  the  leprous  Naaman  by  the  prophet 
Elishah,  and  the  man  was  healed  of  his  disease  (II.  Kings  v.). 
Besides,  all  pious  men  of  that  age,  Essenes  and  Ilaherim 
(25),  all  who  adhered  to  the  laws  of  Levitical  cleanness, 
frequently  bathed  their  bodies  in  wnter.  Some  did  so 
every  morning,  and  were  called  Tohlei  Shacharith.  There- 
fore, one  of  John's  ascetic  practices  Avas  baptism,  bathing 
in  the  Jordan.  Like  many  other  men  of  the  same  secluded 
and  ascetic  life,  .John  became  known  and  renowned  as  a 
prophet,  which  signified  with  them  an  austere  man  who  re- 
nounced the  charms  of  life  and  spent  his  time  in  practices 
of  devotion  and  mortification — a  saint.  With  the  hostile 
measures  against  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  Rome  and 
Jerusalem,  the  resistance  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  number 
of  John's  disciples  increased.  Galilee,  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Herod  Antipas,  enjoying  a  certain  degree  of  inde- 
pendence and  liberty  under  the  Law,  the  meetings  of  those 
patriots,  supported  also  by  Roman  proselytes  (26),  were"  held 
there.  The  bulk  of  the  Hebrews,  however,  and  espe- 
cially the  Hillelites,  were  no  ascetics  and  no  visionaries. 
They  did  not  admit  that  they  were  sinners  worse  than  their 
fathers,  or  that  by  any  fault  of  theirs  Tiberius,  Sejan  and 
Pilate  were  hostile  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  they  were 
to  the  liberties  of  the  Roman  people ;  and  looked  upon 
John  with  his  followers,  their  prophecies  and  their  austerity, 
as  the  outgrowth  of  a  morbid  imagination.  This  irritated 
John  to  harsh  words,  and  he  called  his  opponents  a  genera- 


(24)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  v.  2.  Josepho'n,  chapter  63,  and 
Seder  Had-doroth,  Art.  R.  Gamliel  Haz-zakon,  copied  their  John 
story  partly  from  the  Gosj^els 

(25)  Associates,  who  ate  their  common  food  in  the  same  state  of 
cleanness  as  that  in  which  the  sacrificial  meat  was  eaten. 

(26)  Roman  proselytes  to  Judaism  (D>iQTi  D^"IJ)  are  frequently 
noticed  in  the  Ta  niud  ;  for  instance,  Yeeushalmi  Pesachim,  end  of 
section  8  and  Tosephta  ibid.  Section  7. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  257' 

tion  of  vipers  (27).  Mutual  denunciations  only  increased 
the  influence  and  popularity  of  the  ascetic  teacher,  and  the 
religious  revivals  at  the  Jordan  assumed  the  aspect  of  a 
threatened  rebellion.  This  alarmed  Herod  Antipas,  who, 
for  his  own  sake,  had  good  cause  to  dread  seditious  demon- 
strations in  his  territory.  In  order  to  prevent  this,  John 
was  captured  and  sent  to  INIachaerus,  which  now  belonged  to 
the  King  of  Arabia,  the  father-in-law  of  Antipas,  and  there, 
outside  of  the  Hebrew  territory  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
his  friends,  the  innocent  fanatic  was  put  to  death.  The 
people  condemned  the  bloody  deed,  but  had  no  power  to 
prevent  it.  However,  the  commotion  thus  started  was  not 
decapitated  with  John  at  Machaerus  Tlie  sect  that  believed 
in  John's  teachings  remained  (Acts  xviii.  25,  and  xix.  2  to  4), 
and  Jesus  of  Nazareth  continued  in  his  spirit. 

14.     Misalliance,  War  and  Defeat. 

One  of  the  grand-daughters  of  Herod  I.  and  the  Asmo- 
nean  Mariamne,  Herodias,  was  married  to  her  uncle,  Herod 
Philip,  who  was  the  son  of  Herod  I.  and  the  Boethite 
Mariamne.  They  lived  in  Rome  in  retirement,  which 
Herodias  disliked.  She  was  ambitious,  was  desirous  of 
wearing  the  diadem,  but  her  husband  made  no  attempt  to  ob- 
tain one.  It  happened  that  her  other  uncle,  Herod  Antipas, 
came  to  Rome  and  fell  in  love  with  her.  She  consented  to 
leave  her  husband  and  marry  Antipas.  In  consequence  of 
this  secret  understanding,  she  sent  lier  husband  a  divorce, 
contrary  to  Jewish  law,  although  according  to  Roman  law, 
without  his  consent.  Meanwhile,  Antipas  had  returned  to 
Galilee,  and  there  his  wife,  who  was  the  daughter  of  Aretas, 
King  of  Arabia,  happened  to  receive  information  of  her 
husband's  intended  faithlessness.  She  begged  his  i)€rmis- 
sion  to  go  to  Machaerus,  which  he  granted.  She  went  to 
Machaerus  and  from  there  to  her  father,  and  informed  him 
of  the  faithlessness  of  Antipas.  Antipas  married  his 
brother's  wife,  and  Aretas  made  war  upon  him  to  avenge 
the  honor  of  his  daughter  (28).  The  armies  of  Antipas 
and  Aretas  met  in  battle,  and  Antipas,  by  the  treachery  of 
some  of  his  men,  was  disastrously  defeated.     People    said 

(27)  Matthew  iii.  7;  Luke  iii.  7. 

(28)  The  Elijah  character  of  John  which  is  given  him  in  the 
Gospels  is  unhistorical,  because  neither  Josephus  nor  any  other  an- 
cient source  had  any  knowledge  thereof,  ai'd  the  former  fully  reports 
in  the  account  of  his  caieer  the  cause  of  his  death.  The  story  of 
John  sending  from  his  prison  messengers  to  Jesus  is  no  less  spurious 


258  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION, 

the  defeat  was  God's  punishment  to  Antipas  for  the  inno- 
cent blood  of  John  the  Baptist.  Antipas,  however,  wrote 
to  the  emperor  that  Aretas  had  made  war  upon  him,  and 
the  emperor  commanded  ViteUius  to  invade  Arabia  and 
bring  to  Rome  Aretas  or  his  head. 

15.     First  Teachings  of  Jesus. 

John  the  Baptist  had  sent  forth  a  number  of  active  dis- 
ciples, who  preached  his  doctrine  of  repentance,  asceticism, 
and  baptism,  to  restore  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Promi- 
nent among  these  discii)les  was  one  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in 
Avhose  mind  the  religious  patriotic  idea  had  taken  deep 
root.  Neither  the  place  nor  the  year  or  day  of  his  birth 
Avere  known  to  his  biographers  (29),  except  that  in  rabbini- 
cal sources  he  is  always  called  ("n^u)  Notzfi^  "  one  born  at 
Nazareth,"  a  town  in  Galilee.  In  fact,  if  it  were  not  for  those 
rabbinical  notices  of  Jesus,  and  especially  one  (30),  there 
Avould  not  be  any  evidence  on  record  that  such  a  person 
ever  lived.  Nothing  is  known  with  certainty  of  his  parent- 
age and  his  youth.  Contrary  to  his  own  statements  (31) 
his  biographers  made  him  a  son  of  David,  and,  in  their 
eagerness  to  make  him  also  a  son  of  God,  they  branded 
him    as    a   bastard,    according    to     modern    conceptions, 

as  the  captive  was  sent  away  out  of  the  country  to  prevent  a  sedi- 
tion, which  was  certain  y  done  hurriedly  and  secretly  het'ore  his  dis- 
ciples could  save  him.  The  whole  story  of  John  rebuking  Antipas 
on  account  of  his  misalliance  with  Herodias,  together  wich  the  dan- 
cing of  her  daughter,  etc  ,  is  fictitious;  because  Jolin  was  dead  before 
Antipas  married  Herodias.  Macherus  belonged  to  Aretas  (Ai  tiq. 
xviii,v.  1)  The  wife  of  Antipas  and  daughter  of  Aretas  left  her 
husband  on  discovering  his  intended  faithlessness,  before  he  brought 
Herodias  to  Tiberias.  This  was  the  beginning  of  hostilities  on  the 
part  of  Aretas.  Antipas  could  not  have  had  John  beheaded  in  a  city 
which  belonged  to,  and  was  garrisoned  by,  his  enemy.  Consequently 
John  must  have  been  beheaded  before  that  second  marriage  of 
Antipas. 

(29)  The  four  canonical  Gospels  were  written  between  120  and  170 
A.  c.  in  the  following  order:  Mark,  Matthew,  Luke  and  John,  and 
the  Apocryphal  Gospels  were  written  much  later.  Compare  Dr. 
Sepp's  Lebeii  Jesu,  Dr.  F.  Muller's  Briffe  iieher  die  ChriMHche  Religion, 
Dr.  Karl  August  Credner's  Zur  Geschichte  des  Kanons,  and  our 
Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

(30)  Yekushalmi  Snbboth  xii.  4,  also  in  Tosephta  and  Babli.  R. 
Eliezer   b.    Hyrcan,    a  cotemjiorary  of  the  apostles,  says:     p  abm 

(31)  Compare  Mark  xii.  3.5-37  and  paral.  passages  with  Epistle  of 
Barnabas,  London,  1820,  in  the  Apocryphal  New  Testament  xi.  13. 


1 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  259 

although  among  Pagans  it  was  no  rare  case  that  a  woman 
was  supposed  to  have  conceived  by  some  imaginary  deity 
(32),  or  that  such  distinction  was  claimed  for  or  by  some 
hero  like  Alexander  the  Great.  According  to  the  Talmud, 
Jesus  spent  some  years  in  Egypt  with  a  teacher  called 
Rabbi  Joshua,  and  learned  there  also  the  art  of  necro- 
mancy (33).  If  the  healing  miracles  of  Jesus,  recorded  in 
the  Gospels,  are  based  upon  any  facts,  he  must  have  learned 
in  Egypt  the  art  of  Horus  and  Serapis,  as  practiced  there 
by  the  priests,  which  the  Hebrews  could  call  Egyptian 
necromancy  only  (34).  He  came  back  to  Palestine  as  a 
phj^sician,  and  was  by  nature  an  enthusiast  and  Hebrew 
patriot.  When  John's  preaching  excited  idealistic  minds,. 
Jesus  also  went  to  that  teacher  and  was  inspired  by  him  to 
l^romulgate  his  doctrine,  notwithstanding  his  youth  and 
lack  of  experience  (35).  Jesus  started  out  as  a  public 
orator  and  teacher  with  the  doctrines  of  John,  and  in  that 
capacity  referred  exclusively  to  his  authority,  as  every 
public  teacher  then  had  to  be  ordained  by  some  acknowl- 
edged authority  (36). 

16.     Jesus  in  Galilee. 

As  long  as  John  was  at  large,  Jesus,  in  the  capacity  of 
an  itinerant  teacher  and  physician,  roused  the  people  of 
Galilee  to  repentance  of  sin,  to  bring  about  the  restoration 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  He  met  with  the  same  opposi- 
tion that  John  did,  from  those  who  would  not  admit  that 
they  were  more  sinful  than  their  progenitors  or  neighbors, 
or  that  asceticism  was  the  proper  means  for  the  restoration 


(32)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  iii.  4. 

(33)  See  Matthew  ii  14  and  Gospel  of  Pseudo  Matthew,  chapters 
xvii.  to  xxiii.  in  Cowper's  edition  xxii.,  e.  s 

(34)  Compare  Dr.  Joseph  Ennemoser's  GescMchte  der  Magie,  the 
chapter  ^Uigie.  bei  dm  Egyptern,  with  Sueton  in  Vespasiam  vii.  1 ; 
Tacitus  History  iv.  8,  and  Talmud  Sabbath  108,  about  heaHng  by 
touch,  contact,  sleep,  spittle,  etc.,  which  were  ail  Egyptian  supersti- 
tions. 

(35)  We  can  only  adhere  to  Luke's  dates,  viz.:  that  Jesus  was 
born  6  or  7  A.  c,  after  tlie  banishment  of  Arche  aus,  and  was  exe- 
cuted 36  A.  c  ,  when  he  was  scarcely  thirty  years  old.  John  viii.  57: 
"  Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old,'  reads  in  several  MSS.    "forty," 

and  refers  to  the  Jewish  adage :  ny^'^  D'y^iJ^  ]2  "With  the  fortieth 
year  reason  begins  to  ripen."  The  Jews  told  Jesus  that  he  was  not 
old  enough  to  be  very  wise. 

(36)  Mark  i.  14,  lo ;  xi.  27  to  33.  Matthew  iv.  17 ;  xxi.  23  to  27 
and  paral.  passages. 


260  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

of  the  Kingdom.  He  met  with  some  success  among  the 
lower  classes,  also  among  foreign  harlots,  Sodomites,  publi- 
cans and  other  Roman  agents ;  but  the  intelligent  portion 
remained  cold  to  his  enthusiasm.  The  cures  \Ahich  he  per- 
formed appeared  miraculous  to  the  vulgar,  impious  to  the 
religious,  and  ridiculous  to  the  intelligent.  While  the}'' 
were  aggrandized  by  the  believers,  they  proved  repulsive  to 
the  sober  and  reflecting  minds  (37). 

17.     The  Religion  of  Jesus. 

Soon,  however,  Jesus  rose  above  the  narrow  standpoint 
of  John,  and  embraced  that  of  the  Hillelites,  presenting 
most  conspicuously  the  humanitarian  contents  and  cosmo- 
l>olitan  spirit  of  Judaism ;  and  he  did  it  in  almost  the  same 
words  as  Hillel  had  done  it  (Mark  xii.  28  to  34,  and  Mat- 
thew vii.  12).  Like  all  Hillelites  he  believed  in  one  eternal 
God,  His  general  and  special  providence  (38),  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  being  taught  in  the  Law  (39),  in  future 
reward  and  punishment  (40),  in  the  revelation  and  the 
divinity  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  (41),  in  the  election 
of  Israel  by  the  Almighty  (42),  in  the  eternity  of  God's 
laws  and  promises  (43),  in  the  superior  importance  of  the 
humanitarian  over  the  ritual  laws  and  doctrines,  without 
wishing  to  abolish  the  latter  or  even  the  traditional  laws 
(44).  The  natural  result  of  these  first  principles  w^as,  that 
he  disregarded  the  laws  of  Levitical  cleanness,  which  were 
so  important  to  Shammaites  and  Essenes,  and  so  unim- 
portant to  Hillelites,  and  ate  with  unclean  sinners,  publicans 
a,nd  lepers,  and  permitted  harlots  to  touch  him,  while  his 
disciples  also  did  not  wash  their  hands  before  meals  (45). 
Furthermore,  he  looked  upon  the  whole  Levitical  institu- 
tion, temple,  sacrifice  and  priesthood  included,  as  being 
necessary  no  longer,  and  not  worth  the  blood  shed  about 
and    around    the   temple    (46).      This    was   certainly    also 

(37)  Mark  iii.  21  to  23  ;  Matthew  ix.  3,  4 ;  xii    24. 

(38)  Mark  iv.  24  ;  Matthew  vii.  2  ;  x.  29,  exactly  like  the  Talmud; 
Luke  vi.  38. 

(39)  Mark  xii.  19  to  27  ;  compare  Sanhedrin  90  b. 

(40)  Mark  ix.  43  to  48. 

(41)  Matthew  v.  17  to  19  ;  Luke  xvi.  17. 

(42)  Wliich  was  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  be  restored. 

(43)  Mark  x.  18  to  21. 

(44)  Mark  i.  44;  Matthew  xii.  7;  Mechilta,  ki-Thissa;  Matthew 
xxiii.  1  e.  s. 

(45)  Mark  ii.  15. 

(46)  Mark  xi.  15;  John  ii.  13;  see  our   "Jesus  Himself,"    chapter 
iv.  in  Israelite  of  18()9. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTIOX.  261 

the  opinion  of  the  most  prominent  Hillelites,  who 
prophesied  the  speedy  destruction  of  the  tem])le,  and 
placed  the  repentance  of  sin,  the  study  of  the  Law,  the 
practice  of  charity  and  benevolence,  the  education  of  the 
3^oung,  and  good  will  to  all,  above  all  Levitical  observances 
(47).  He  abandoned  the  asceticism  of  John,  lived,  ate  and 
drank  like  other  men,  was  cheerful  among  the  cheerful, 
synipathetic  among  the  suffering,  loved  the  company  of 
women,  who  were  among  his  most  faithful  disciples,  and 
became  a  popular  man  among  his  people  (48).  Now  he  had 
ample  opportunity  to  chastise  those  to  Avhom  rigorous  ob- 
servances and  outward  performances  were  more  holy  than 
the  humanitarian  laws  and  practices,  and  the  quibbling 
scholasts  whose  wisdom  consisted  of  wit  and  sophism  ;  to 
convince  them  of  their  blindness,  sinfulness  and  self- 
complacency  ;  to  admonish  them  to  sincere  re])entance, 
and  the  restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  (49). 

18.     Style  and  Contents  of  his  Speeches. 

Jesus  spoke  in  the  sententious  and  parabolic  style,  al- 
ways relying  on  Scriptures  as  the  highest  authority,  as  was 
the  Midrash  style  of  the  Scribes  of  those  days,  viz. :  a 
maxim  expressed  in  the  style  of  Solomon  or  Sirach's  son, 
based  upon  a  verse  of  Scriptures  and  illustrated  by  a 
parable,  without  resort,  however,  to  the  allegoric  method  of 
the  Egyptian  Hebrews.  He  uttered  many  good 'and  wise 
sayings,  which  were  not  new  to  the  learned,  being  taken 
from  the  so-called  floating  wisdom  of  the  nation,  found 
abundantly  in  the  ancient  rabbinical  literature  (50) ;  but 
they  were  new  to  his  disciples  and  audiences,  who  ad- 
mired them  exceedingly.  Jesus  was  not  distinguished 
for  either  learning  or  originality,  and  this  enabled  him  the 
more  easily  to  make  himself  intelligil)le  and  accepta- 
ble to  his  audiences.  He  was  distinguished  for  ardent 
sympathy  with  his  people  and  its  cause,  strong  con- 
victions   and    moral    courage     to    utter     them,   and    that 

(47)  Yoma  86;  mj^lpn  h'yO  DSL*'0'l  HpIV  'hv  3^3n  Shekalim; 
Succah  49  b  ;  Meguillah  16  6. 

(48)  Mark  vi'i. ;  ii.  18  e.  s. ;  Matthew  xi.  18,  19 ;  Luke  vii.  ?>?>  to  35. 

(49)  The  Anti-Pharisaic  speeches  in  Matthew  xv.  and  xxiii.  are 
productions  of  the  second  century  a.  c.  ;  compare  to  Luke  xi.  37  e.  s. ; 
xiii.  34  and  Mark  vii. 

(50 1  The  numerous  parallel  passages  of  the  New  Testament  and 
the  Rabbinical  literature  were  compiled  by  Lightfoot,  tlcrse  Hehrai- 
cx  et  TulmudU'iv,  etc  ;  F.  Nork,  Rahhinnrhr  QueUen  und,  Parallelrn,  etc.; 
Zipser,  Die  Bftgpredigt  in  Talmwl ;  Wunsche,  Neue  Beitne.ge,  etc. 
Gruenebaum,  Isidor  Kalisch,  and  in  our  Origin  of  Christianity. 


2G2  TlIK    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

nervous  eloquence  which  inspires  confidence.  Irrespective 
of  even  common  i)oliteness  or  any  social  forms,  he  cared 
not  for  his  own  mother  and  brothers,  traveled  in  company 
of  eccentric  women,  subsisted  with  his  disciples  on  his 
friends'  property,  upbraided  men  of  learning  and  promi- 
nence, and  evinced  not  the  slightest  regard  for  the  practical 
affairs  of  man,  which,  under  the  prevailing  excitement, 
only  increased  his  popularit}'. 

19.     The  Policy  of  Jesus. 

Success  matured  the  belief  in  Jesus  that  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  was  at  hand,  and  he  changed  his  tone  from  the 
promise  to  the  fulfillment,  opening  thus  the  third  phase  of 
his  l)iography.  He  assumed  the  prophetic  title  of  the  "  Sou 
of  Man,"  as  Ezekiel  and  Daniel  (viii.  17)  had  called  them- 
selves, and  as  the  latter  had  called  the  head  of  the  restored 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  (vii.  13  Bar  Anosh).  According  to 
the  Laws  of  Moses  (Deut.  xviii.  15  to  22),  it  was  not  the 
king  of  the  house  of  David  or  of  any  other  dynasty,  nor  the 
highpriest  who  was  to  be  the  head  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven ;  the  prophet  was  to  be  the  chief  ruler,  who  must 
be  obeyed.  Jesus  presumed  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was 
re-established  and  himself  its  chief  ruler.  He  had  the 
peculiar  idea  of  going  back  in  history  one  thousand  years 
and  resuming  its  form  of  government  as  left  by  Samuel. 
This  met  with  approbation  among  his  disciples  and  fol- 
lowers, who  were  visionary  enough  to  apply  ancient  Bible 
conditions  to  modern  emergencies ;  but  it  roused  the  op- 
position of  those  who  did  not  believe  in  the  authorit}^  of 
the  Paraclete  or  Bath-Kol,  had  no  faith  in  a  form  of  gov- 
ernnaent  overcome  in  history,  and  had  enacted  stringent 
laws  against  proplietical  pretenders  (51).  Jesus  preaching 
in  this  sense,  and  sending  out  some  of  his  disciples  with 
the  same  message  to  the  ])cople,  his  policy  was  attacked 
more  than  his  doctrine.  Here  are  the  Romans,  the  lords 
of  the  land,  was  the  main  question,  how  will  you  overcome 
them?  Jesus  replied  with  the  ancient  Pharisees  and  the 
Hillelites,  it  matters  not  who  holds  the  political  power  and 
collects  the  taxes,  you  pay  at  any  rate  nothing  but  Ca:>sar's 
money,  money  unlawful  to  you  on  account  of  its  idolatrous 
effigies.  If  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  God's  grace  are 
restored  to  Israel,  He  will  also  settle  your  political  affairs. 
You  can  not  conquer  the  Romans,  convert  and   love  them 


(51)     Sanliedrin  89  a;  Yicki.shai.mi  ibid.  xi.  7;  Sii'iiui  177  and  178. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  263 

and  they  are  your  enemies  no  longer.  Their  administra- 
tion of  the  hiws  is  unjust  and  oppressive;  have  nothing  to 
do  with  their  judges,  and  the}'  can  not  wrong  3'ou.  ^'  If  any 
man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let 
him  have  thy  cloak  also,"  etc.  (Matthew  v.  40-47)  (52). 
Have  patience  and  faith,  wait  till  God  changes  this  state  of 
affairs.  Your  temple  is  in  the  hands  of  Roman  soldiers 
and  Hebrew  hirelings  ;  stay  away,  pray  in  your  closets,  un- 
derstand what  it  means:  "I  delight  in  grace  and  not  in 
sacrifice."  This  is  a  time  of  affliction  and  tribulation  ;  bear 
it  with  patience  as  the  punishment  for  your  sins.  All  de- 
pends on  the  restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and 
God's  grace  to  Israel ;  this  accomplished,  Providence  will 
heal  all  wounds.  It  is  the  same  policy  which  Jeremiah  in 
his  time  advanced  and  advocated,  and  to  which  'the 
Hillelites  adhered  to  the  very  last.  But  the  party  of  action 
and  the  Zealots  no  less  consistently  and  patriotically  op- 
posed this  policy  as  visionary  and  unmanly.  Therefore, 
while  it  placed  Jesus  in  conflict  with  the  officiating  priests, 
Sadducees,  Shammaites  and  Zealots,  it  certainly  met  with 
the  indorsement  of  thousands  whose  feelings  and  aspira- 
tions were  less  political  and  more  religious. 

20.     Jesus  a  Fugitive. 

The  arrest  of  John  was  a  warning  to  Jesus.  Herod 
Antipas  had  good  reason  to  believe  him  as  dangerous  as 
was  John,  who  had  been  beheaded,  of  which  Jesus,  it  ap- 
pears, was  never  informed  (Matthew  xiv.).  Jesus,  perhaps, 
cautioned  by  his  mother  (Markiii.  21),  or  by  the  Pharisees, 
who  were  his  friends  (Luke  xiii.  31),  became  a  fugitive.  He 
was  now  among  the  Gadarenes,  east  of  Galilee  (Mark  v.  1), 
and  then  "  departed  privately  into  a  desert  place  by  ship  " 
{Ibid.  vi.  32).  We  find  him  in  Bethsaida,  in  Philip's  terri- 
tory {Ibid.  vi.  45),  then  in  the  borders  of  T_vi"e  and  8idon 
{Ibid.  vii.  24),  in  the  coasts  of  Decapolis  {Ibid.  viii.  31), 
inliahited  chiefly  by  Gentiles,  then  again  at  Dalmanutha 
{Ibid.  viii.  10),  east  of  Galilee,  and  at  last  at  Ca^sarea 
Philippi   {Ibid.   viii.   27),    at  the    extreme   north    of  that 

(52)  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  never  delivered.  No  man 
ever  delivered  an  address  on  so  many  different  subjects.  Therefore, 
none  besides  Matthew  lias  that  .sermon,  and  the  other  Evangelists 
have  various  portions  of  it  in  diff'erent  places  and  times.  It  is  en- 
tirely misunderstood.  It  contains  maxims  of  Jesus  in  reference  to 
that  particular  a<:e  and  those  particular  circumstances,  wliicla  liave 
been  changed  into  moral  principles. 


264  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

country.  He  spent  his  time  as  a  fugitive,  now  in  the 
desert  then  on  the  hike,  now  at  this  and  tlien  at  the  other 
border  of  Galilee,  nearly  always  in  Philip's  territory,  which 
had  become  (84  a.  c.)  a  Roman  province  under  the  mild 
government  of  Vitellius ;  and  he  never  appeared  again  in 
the  populous  centers  of  Galilee.  He  exclaimed,  "  The  foxes 
have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests ;  but  the 
Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head "  (Matthew 
viii.  20).  Some  of  his  disciples,  it  appears  (Luke  ix.  54), 
lost  their  patience  and  were  ready  for  acts  of  violence,  but 
Jesus  told  them,  "  The  Son  of  man  is  not  come  to  destroy 
men's  life,  but  to  save  "  (lives).  However,  persecution  is  an 
incitement  to  enthusiasm,  and  martyrdom  rouses  the  com- 
passion and  sympathy  of  the  multitude.  So  also  in  this 
case,  the  martyrdom  of  John  and  the  supposed  persecution 
of  Jesus  by  Antipas  only  increased  the  popularity  of  the 
Son  of  man,  elevated  him  in  his  own  convictions  and  in  the 
opinion  of  his  disciples,  and  brought  about  the  fourth 
epoch  in  his  history. 

21.     Jesus  Proclaimed  the  Messiah. 

Early  in  the  year  36  a.  c.  (53),  when  Jesus  and  his  dis- 
ciples were  sojourning  in  the  towns  about  Chpsarea  Philippi, 
Peter  proclaimed  Jesus  the  Messiah  or  Christ.  Jesus  pro- 
tested emphatically  against  that  royal  title,  rebuked  Peter,. 
"■  Get  thee  behind  me  Satan,  for  thou.savorest  not  the  things 
that  be  of  God,  but  the  things  that  be  of  men,"  and 
charged  his  disciples  not  to  tell  any  man,  as  the  assump- 
tion of  that  title  must  bring  on  him  great  suffering,  lie 
would  be  rejected  by  the  Hebrew  authorities  and  killed  (cru- 
cified) by  the  Romans  (Mark  viii.  27  to  33).  But  the  word 
was  out,  the  disciples  seized  it,  and  against  his  will,  with 
inevitable  death  before  his  eyes,  Jesus  was  proclaimed  the 
Messiah.  Messiah  or  Christ  signifies  "the  annointed  one" 
(54),  and  in  the  Hebrew  records  only  the  highpriest  or  his 
proxy  (Levit.  iv.  3;  v.  16),  the  king  of  all  Israel  (55)  and 
Cyrus  were  called  Messiahs.  The  Hebrews  then  and  al- 
ways thereafter,  who  believed  in  the  coming  of  a  Messiah, 
expected  him  to  be  the  King  of  Israel,  who  would  gather 

(53)  See  Section  11  Note  3. 

(54)  From  n^'O  to  annoint. 

(55)  Compare  I.  Samuel  ii.  10,  35;  xii.  3,  5;  xv.  6 ;  xxiv.  7,  11; 
xxvi.  9,  11,  23;  II.  Samuel  i.  14,  16;  xix.  22;  xxiii.  1 ;  Isaiah  xlv.  1 ; 
our  Origin  of  Christianity,  p.  180,  and  our  Jesus  Himself,  chapter  3 
in  Tlie  hradite,  August  13,  1869. 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  2G5 

the  Hebrews  from  all  lands  to  Palestine,  and  there  reign 
over  them  as  their  political  king.  The  expectation  of  a 
coming  Messiah  was  not  a  doctrine  of  the  Hillelites,  so 
that  one  of  their  last  representatives,  Hillel  II.,  declared 
directly  against  that  belief  •  (^xnc*^^  n>L"0  I'n)-  In  the 
Palestinean  literature  there  is  no  evidence  at  all  that  the 
Hebrews,  prior  to  the  hnal  destruction  of  the  temple,  enter- 
tained such  a  belief  or  held  such  a  doctrine  ;  although  some 
enthusiasts  may  have  believed  in  the  future  restoration  of 
the  Urim  and  Thumim  and  true  prophecy,  but  their  num- 
ber was  certainly  insignificant.  There 'existed,  however, 
such  Messianic  hopes  and  speculations  among  the  Greco- 
Roman  Hebrews,  who  expected  a  Messiah  would  come  and 
regather  the  Hebrews  from  all  lands.  These  hopes  and 
speculations  were  also  imposed  on  the  Septuagint,  found 
expression  in  the  Sybiline  poems  of  that  and  subsequent 
ages,  and  formulation  in  the  semi-m^'stic  speculations  of 
Philo  (56).  The  Roman  edict  against  the  Hebrews,  under 
Tiberius  and  Sejan,  may  have  excited  again,  among  the 
Greco-Roman  Hebrews,  the  hope  and  expectation  of  a 
Messiah.  Thousands  of  them  undoubtedly  came  to  Pales- 
tine, and  other  multitudes  were  expected  to  come  to 
Jerusalem,  as  usual,  to  celebrate  the  Passover.  Those  were 
the  main  persons,  upon  whose  belief  and  support  Peter  and 
the  other  men  of  action  among  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  relied 
when  they  proclaimed  him  the  Messiah. 

22.     The  Failure. 

Being  completely  in  the  hands  of  over-excited  enthusi- 
asts, Jesus  followed  them  down  from  Casarea  Philippi  to 
Jericho,  crossing  and  recrossing  the  Jordan  at  various 
points,  being  proclaimed  the  Messiah,  and  performing  feats 
of  Thaumaturgy  which  his  followers  magnified  and  ag- 
grandized. Death  was  constantl}^  before  his  eyes,  and  it 
was  inevitable.  Still  his  enthusiastic  and  patriotic  disciples 
could  not  imagine  that  the  contemplated  rising  of  the  peo- 
ple, supported  by  publicans  and  other  Roman  agents,  could 
prove  a  failure.  They  came  with  him  to  Jerusalem  shortly 
before  the  Passover  feast,  roused  the  enthusiasm  in  the 
suburbs,  where  most  of  the  pilgrims  were  encamped,  and 
then  entered  Jerusalem  in  triumph.  He  rode  on  an  ass  as 
the  coming  Messiah  was  expected,  and,  under  the  acclama- 
tions   of    the    excited   multitude,   he   was    proclaimed   the 


(56)     Philo,  De  Excralionibus. 


266  THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION. 

restorer  of  the  Kingdom  of  David  (Mark  xi.  10).  He  was 
lead  to  the  temple,  Avhere  another  popular  demonstration 
greeted  him,  and  he  began  with  exercising  sovereign 
authority  and  accusing  the. priests  of  having  made  of  the 
temple  a  den  of  thieves.  He  argued  with  priests  and 
scribes,  addressed  the  masses,  reviewed  in  brief  his  entire 
scheme  of  salvation  ;  still  he  was  no  longer  the  same  en- 
thusiastic and  self-confident  man.  No  angels  and  no 
miracles  came  to  his  aid,  and  his  chosen  disciples  were 
helpless  as  children.  The  learning  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
prevailing  unbelief  in  paraclete,  new  prophets,  supernatural 
aid,  ]\Iessiahship  and  other  products  of  enthusiasm,  unde- 
ceived and  confused  him,  so  that  he  denounced  them  all, 
and  prophesied  misery  and  affliction  to  all.  His  disciples 
would  not  let  him  stay  over  night  in  Jerusalem,  fearing  he 
might  escape  them  or  be  captured,  and  so  he  was  kept  in 
secluded  quarters  on  Mount  Olive  among  lepers.  He  must 
soon  have  discovered  that  the  Hebrew  authorities  afforded 
him  no  protection,  and  that  Pontius  Pilate  certainly  would 
not  spare  the  man  who  had  been  publicly  proclaimed  the 
King  of  the  Hebrews. 

23.     Capture  and  Death. 

Caiphas,  the  highpriest,  was  not  merely  a  Roman  tool, 
which  he  must  have  been,  or  else  he  could  not  have  main- 
tained himself  in  his  office  all  the  time  with  Pontius  Pilate. 
He  was  also  the  mediator  between  the  people  and  the  Ro- 
man authorities.  He  and  all  responsible  men  in  eTerusalem 
must  have  dreaded  an  insurrection  in  the  city,  and  espe- 
cially during  the  feast,  which  would  have  afforded  to  Pilate 
a  welcome  pretext  for  carnage  and  plunder.  Therefore,  he 
and  his  few  coadjutors  concluded  upon  abandoning  Jesus 
into  the  hands  of  Pilate  without  exciting  the  multitude, 
and  disavowing  every  sympathy  with  the  Messianic  com- 
motion (John  xi.  45  to  50).  The  disciples,  however,  had 
Jesus  formally  annointed,  and  kept  him  well  secluded  and 
secured  at  night  time,  so  that  he  could  not  well  be  cap- 
tured without  exciting  the  tumult  which  was  dreaded.  The 
insurrectionary  demonstration  was  ripe,  and  ready  to  l)reak 
out  on  the  Passover  feast.  Jesus  was  well  aware  that  this 
would  cost  the  lives  of  thousands  without  effecting  any 
good.  Bloodshed  and  worldly  power  were  contrary  to  his 
teachings  and  repugnant  to  his  nature.  Therefore,  he  re- 
solved upon  delivering  himself  into  the  hands  of  the 
authorities  and  dying  the  martyr's  death  before  the  demon- 


THE    MESSIANIC    COMMOTION.  267 

stration  could  take  place,  in  order  to  save  his  own  friends 
and  followers,  with  hundreds  of  others,  from  certain  death. 
By  prudent  hints  he  encouraged  Judas  Iscariot,  one  of  his 
disciples,  to  betray  his  secret  retreat  to  the  priests,  and 
Judas  did  so  witliout  supposing  that  Jesus  would  be 
put  to  death.  In  the  night  of  Passover  the  soldiers  of 
,  Pilate  surprised  Jesus  and  his  companions  in  their  secret 
retreat,  and  early  in  the  morning,  without  ceremony  or 
trial,  Pilate  ordered  him  to  be  put  to  death  as  the  "  King  of 
the  Jews,"  before  his  friends  could  have  the  least  knowledge 
of  his  fate  (57).  He  died  a  ma-rtyr  to  save  his  friends  and 
many  more  innocent  men.  The  Messianic  drama  ended 
with  the  death  of  its  hero,  and  his  disciples,  dismayed  and 
-disappointed,  left  Jerusalem  to  be  quiet  for  some  years  (58). 

24.     Pontius  Pilate  Banished. 

If  the  crucifixion  story  of  the  Gospels  is  true  in  regard 
to  the  end  of  Jesus,  then  it  is  certain  that  Pilate  treated 
him  with  special  cruelty.  He  not  only  imposed  on  his  victim 
the  worst  of  all  Roman  punishments,  viz. :  crucifixion,  but 
-also  scourged  him,  and  then  had  him  mocked  b}^  his 
soldiers  before  he  was  crucified.  Scourging  and  crucifixion 
were  inflicted  in  Rome  only  in  exceptional  cases  and  on 
slaves  only,  and  on  rebels  in  the  provinces.  But  this  was 
Pilate's  last  outrage  committed  in  Judea.  We  have  no 
doubt  this  execution  was  one  of  the  points  advanced 
against  him  by  the  Hebrews  and  Samaritans  before  Vitel- 
lius  (59).     In  the  fall  of  36  a.  c,  Vitellius   sent  Marcellus 


(57)  See  our  Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

(58)  Jesus  was  no  Essene,  did  not  alegorize  Scriptures,  had  no  in- 
tention to  establish  a  new  relij:ion,  or  even  to  oppose  the  Hillelites. 
He  was  too  young  to  see  his  mistake  in  time,  that  a  nation  can  not  go 
back  a  thousand  years  to  reinstitute  a  form  of  government  which 
had  outUved  itself.  Stern  realities  wi  1  not  submit  to  idea's,  how- 
ever lofty.  His  disciples  proclaiming  him  the  Messiah,  forced  him 
into  the  embrace  of  death,  and  Pi  ate  was  the  executioner.  His 
martyrdom,  dke  his  teachings,  was  gravely  misunderstood. 

(59)  To  which  Philo  refers  in  his  charges  against  Pilate  "the  exe- 
cution of  many  persons  without  process  of  law"  (See  Section  8  of 
this  chapter).  It  api^ears  that  Josephus  did  mention  this  fact  in 
Antiquities  xviii.,  iii  3;  but  some  tmie  ])etwecn  250  and  325  a.c. 
that  paragraph  was  changed  into  its  present  form,  of  which  Origenes 
in  250  A.  c.  had  iio  knowledge,  and  Eusebius  in  325  a.  c.  mentions 
for  the  first  time.  The  same  appears  to  be  the  case  with  Antiquities 
XX  ,  ix.  1,  where  the  words  "who  was  called  Christ  "  were  made  of 
the  phrase  "  whom  his  disciples  called  Christ."  Forgeries  of  Ihat 
kind  were  not  uncommon  at  that  time,  when   quite   a  number  of 


268  THE    iMI-;SSIA\IC    COMMOTION. 

to  Judca  to  take  charge  of  that  country,  and  commanded 
Pilate  to  goto  Rome  and  defend  himself  before  the  emperor. 
Pilate  left  his  post  in  disgrace  and  hastened  to  Rome.  But 
Ix'fore  he  reached  it  Tiberius  died  (March  16,  37  a.  c). 
Still  Pilate  was  tried,  found  guilt}',  and  banished  to  Vienna^ 
where  he  ended  (some  say  in  Switzerland)  in  suicide. 

25.     ViTELLius  IN  Jerusalem. 

The  next  Passover  (37  a.  c.)  Vitellius  came  to  Jerusa- 
lem  and  made  a  successful  attempt  to  pacify  the  Hebrews, 
which  quelled  the  Messianic  commotion.  He  restored  the 
highpriest's  vestments  to  the  custody  of  the  priests,  and 
removed  Caiphas  from  office.  Jonathan,  the  son  of  Ananus, 
was  appointed  in  his  place  (60).  Another  evidence  of  his 
good  will  was  this  :  According  to  the  command  of  Tiberius, 
he  made  ready  to  invade  Arabia,  and  intended  to  let  his 
legions  march  through  Judea.  The  Hebrews  prayed  him 
not  to  do  it  on  account  of  the  idolatrous  ensigns,  and  he 
changed  the  route  of  march  for  the  soldiers.  Next  Pente- 
cost he  came  to  Jerusalem  with  Herod  Antipas,  removed 
from  office  Jonathan,  who,  it  appears,  did  not  wish  to 
be  highpriest,  and  appointed  in  his  place  his  brother, 
Theophikis.  While  in  Jerusalem,  Vitellius  was  in- 
formed of  the  death  of  Tiberius,  and  in  consequence  of 
which  he  did  not  invade  Arabia,  but  returned  to  Antioch. 
For  a  short  time  there  was  again  peace  in  Palestine. 

pseudonimic  books  were  forged,  with  the  avowed  intention  to  prove 
the  existence  of  Jesus  and  liis  crucifixion,  which  were  denied  by 
heretics  and  others,  and  to  sett'e  the  responsibility  of  the  master's 
deatln  upon  the  Jews  (See  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  and  the  others  fol- 
lowing in  Cowper's  edition). 

(00)    Josephus'  Autiq.  xviii.,  iv.  3. 


AGEIPPA    I.    AND    HIS   TIME.  269 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Agrippa  I.  and  Jiis  Time. 


1.     Agrippa's  Youth. 

One  of  the  grandson's  of  Herod  I.  by  the  Asmonean 
Mariamne,  was  Agrippa,  son  of  Aristobul  and  Berenice,  the 
daughter  of  Salome.  Berenice  being  a  particular  friend  of 
Antonia,  the  mother  of  Germanicus,  sent  her  son  to  Rome, 
and  he  was  educated  there  in  the  imperial  family  with 
Drusus,  son  of  Tiberius.  Extravagance  was  one  of  the 
vices  which  young  Agrippa  contracted  at  that  Court,  and 
levity  was  another.  Although  he  married  a  very  affection- 
ate and  prudent  scion  of  Herod,  Cypros,  these'  vices  had 
the  mastery  over  him  all  his  life.  As  long  as  his  mother 
lived  he  was  kept  within  bounds.  When  she  was  dead  he 
continued  borrowing  and  squandering  large  sums  of  money, 
till  at  last  he  was  obliged  to  leave  Rome  in  order  to  escape 
prosecution  by  his  creditors.  At  Malath  in  Idumea,  he 
contemplated  committing  suicide,  an  intention  which  his 
wife  frustrated.  She  wrote  to  his  sister,  Herodias,  the  wife 
of  Herod  Antipas,  and  he  appointed  Agri})pa  his  minister 
of  commerce  with  a  considerable  salary.  Agrippa  could 
not  long  be  his  uncle's  servant,  he  soon  left  him  and  went 
to  Flaccus,  where  his  brother,  Aristobul,  whom  he  disliked, 
also  was.  He  also  soon  lost  the  favor  of  Flaccus,  and  went 
to  Ptolemais  with  the  intention  of  going  back  to  Italy.  His 
freedman,  Marsyas,  obtained  the  money  for  him,  he  went  to 
Anthidon,  hired  a  ship,  Init  was  arrested  for  debt  to  the 
imperial  treasury.  Released  on  parole  he  sailed  to  Alexan- 
dria, where  a  rich  co-religionist,  Alexander  Lysimachus  (1), 

(1)  He  was  alabarch  of  the  Alexandrian  Hebrews  and  President 
of  the  Imperial  Salt-works ;  he  had  been  before  the  steward  of  An- 
tonia (Josephus'  Antiq.  xix.,  v.  1). 


270  AGRIPPA    T.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

tlie  brother  of  the  pliilosopher,  Pliilo,  furnished  him  with 
the  means  to  reach  Italy,  where  he  i^rovicled  him  with  other 
sums  of  money.  Drusus  was  dead,  and  Agrippa  went 
directly  to  Caprea,  where  the  emperor  resided  temporarily. 
He  was  kindly  received,  but  when  the  emperor  was  in- 
formed of  his  debt  to  the  imperial  treasui-y,  he  refused  to  re- 
ceive him  again  till  tliat  debt  was  paid.  Antonia  and  a  freed- 
man  of  Tiberias,  Thallos,  helped  him  this  time  with  large 
sums  of  money,  and  he  was  reinstated  at  the  Imperial 
Court.  Tiberius  wanted  him  to  befriend  especially  the  son 
of  Germanicus,  Caius  Caligula,  and  so  he  became  associated 
with  one  of  the  most  extravagant  and  most  extraordinary- 
fools  of  Rome. 

2.     Reduced  to  the  Extreme. 

Agrippa  was  now  one  of  the  most  envied  favorites  of  the 
emperor,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Caesar.  But  the 
tenure  of  such  fortune  is  very  uncertain.  One  day  he  was 
alone  with  Caius,  as  he  supposed,  and  told  him  that  he 
considered  him  more  competent  than  the  cruel  Tiberius  for 
the  throne,  and  wished  that  the  emperor  would  soon  vacate  it. 
His  freedman,  Eutychus,  had  heard  this,  and  being  after- 
ward accused  of  theft  by  Agrippa,  reported  to  the  emperor 
Agrippa's  words  with  aggravating  additions.  Agrippa  was 
put  in  chains  and  sent  out  before  the  palace  to  stand  there 
among  other  captives.  A  slave,  Thaumastus,  was  the  only 
person  who  gave  him  a  drink  of  water,  for  which  he  prom- 
ised him  liberty,  and  he  kept  his  word.  A  German  captive 
l)rophesied  that  Agrippa  would  yet  mount  the  throne, 
although  he  would  die  a  sudden  death  five  days  after  having 
seen  an  owl  over  his  head  (2).  The  prince  in  purple  and 
chains  was  sent  to  a  prison,  where  Antonia  took  good  care 
of  him.  One  day  a  report  reached  Rome  that  Tiberius  was 
dead,  and  Marsyas  carried  the  tidings  at  once  to  Agrippa, 
and  told  him  in  Hebrew,  ''the  Hon  is  dead."  His  jailer  ob- 
serving that  something  very  fortunate  had  occurred,  per- 
suaded Agrippa  to  tell  him  the  news.  He  took  off  the 
chains  of  his  prisoner,  and  they  sat  down  to  a  royal  ban- 
quet, when  suddenly  the  news  of  the  emperor's  death  was 

(2)  The  Germans,  like  other  heathens,  were  also  very  superstitious 
before  they  embraced  Christianity.  The  fact  that  Josephus  makes 
such  extensive  use  of  his  owl  story  and  tlie  prophecy  connected  with 
it,  proves  that  he  had  embraced  Roman  notions  oiE  soothsaying  and 
aujiury,  a  fact  which  must  be  taken  into  consideration  wherever  he 
speaks  of  projjhets. 


AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME.  271 

contradicted.  The  terrified  jailer  again  put  his  prisoner  in 
chains  and  forced  him  back  into  his  gaol.  Next  morning, 
however,  the  death  of  Tiberius  was  officially  announced. 
Agrippa  was  freed  of  his  chains  and  sent  to  his  own  house 
to  await  there  the  orders  of  Caius  Caligula. 

3.     From  the  Prison  to  the  Throne. 

After  a  few  days  Agrippa  was  called  before  Caligula,  who 
placed  the  crown  upon  his  head  and  made  him  king  of 
Philipp's  tetrarchy  (37  a.  c),  in  the  north  and  northeast  of 
Palestine,  which  had  been  for  three  years  part  of  Syria. 
Agrippa  remained  in  Rome  one  year  longer,  the  boon  com- 
panion of  the  emperor,  before  he  returned  to  Palestine,  and 
then  at  the  express  desire  of  the  emperor  he  took  his  way 
home  via  Alexandria,  where  the  following  melanchol}^  events 
transpired  (Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  vi.)  : 

4.     Rise  of  the  Pagans  Against  the  Hebrews. 

The  conflict  between  Heathenism  and  Judaism  was  a 
literary  feud  no  less  than  a  sanguinary  combat  among  its 
respective  champions.  While  the  Hebrews  employed  their 
pens  and  the  Greek  language  to  expound  and  promulgate 
their  religion,  laws  and  history,  Pagans,  by  the  same  means, 
attacked  and  derided  them.  Foremost  among  the  latter 
were  Apollonius  Molo  (90  b.  c),  Posidonius  of  Apamea  (70 
B.  c),  who  was  one  of  Cicero's  teachers,  Chaeremon  (50  b.  c), 
Lysimachos  (30  b.  c),  and  Apion  of  Alexandria,  in  this 
period,  besides  the  Latin  writers  noticed.  Apion  was  notor- 
ious as  a  malicious  demagogue,  whose  main  fort  was  in  im- 
pudent lying,  bragging  and  glittering  sophistry  (Josephus 
contra  Apion).  Tlie  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  were  defamed 
as  a  number  of  leprous  slaves  driven  out  of  Egypt,  Moses 
was  aspersed  as  a  rebel  priest  of  Heliopolis,  the  Hebrews 
were  denounced  as  atheists  who  worshiped  no  gods  and  had 
an  ass  in  their  sanctum  sanctorum,  and  the  enemies  ot  all 
men  who  would  not  partake  of  the  Heathen  banquets  (3). 
As  long  as  the  edicts  of  Julius  Casar  were  in  force  and  a 
Hebrew  monarch  enthroned  in  Jerusalem  insisting  upon 
their  execution,  the  conflicts  in  the  various  cities  between 
Heathen  and  Hebrew  were  brief  and  easily  settled  by 
Roman  authoritv.  The  edict  of  Tiberius  against  the 
Italian  Hebrews  'and  Pontius  Pilate's  scornful  oppressions 


(3)    John  Gill's  Notices  of  the  Jews  and  their  country  by  the  classic 
writers  of  Antiquity,  London,  1872. 


979 


AGRIPPA   I.    AxND    HIS    TIME. 


in  Judea  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  hostility  of  the  Pagans. 
Tliis  was  the  case   especially  in  Alexandria,  where  the  na- 
tive Egyptian  element  always  looked  with  hatred  upon  the 
favored  foreigners,  and   especially  upon  the  Hehrews,  who, 
by  their  superior  intelligence  and  their  numerous  connec- 
tions in  all  foreign  lands,  were  the  most  skilled  artisans  and 
most  successful  merchants,  held  the  most  responsible  pub- 
lic positions  (4),  and  counted  among  their  men  some  of  the 
finest  and  most  cultivated  minds.     A  natural   consequence 
of  all  these  advantages  was  their  wealth,  which  irritated  the 
lower  classes  to  envy  and  ripened   in  them  blood}'-  designs. 
The  evil  grew  when  Flaccus,  another  creature  of  Sejan,  was 
sent  to  Egypt  with  the  same  policy  with  which  Pilate  had 
been  sent  to  Judea ;  and  Egypt,  like   Judea,  groaned  under 
the  barbarous  despotism  of  Rome.     This    threatening  fire 
under  the  ashes  began  to  break  forth,  when  in  Jul}',  38  a.  c, 
Agrippa  came  to  Alexandria,  and   was    enthusiastically  re- 
ceived by  the  Hebrews.     The  row  began    with  a  farce  and 
ended   in   terrible   bloodshed.      The    ])opulace    congregated 
about  the  gymnasium,  took  hold  upon  an  idiot,  whose  name 
was    Carobas,   dressed   him  up    fantastically    with   purple, 
crown  and  scepter,  placed  him    high    upon  a  throne,  and 
saluted   him  as  king,  calling  him  by    the    Syriac  title  of 
Maran,  "  our  lord,"  and  played  a  royal  farce  with  the  fool, 
a   burlesque   of    Agrippa    and    the    Hebrews.     This    feeler 
being  successful,  the  populace  rushed  next  morning  into  the 
synagogues  and  erected  there    the    emperors'  statues,  and 
Flaccus,  in  imitation   of  the  Tiberius    edict,  by  proclama- 
tion, deprived  the  Hebrews  of  the  rights  of  citizenship,  so 
that  he  need  protect  them   no  longer.     Now  the  bloodshed 
and  robbery  began.     The  Hebrews   were  driven   from  the 
four  quarters  of  Alexandria   into   the  Delta  quarter,  which 
was     besieged      and      their      houses      ransacked.       None 
could    bring   any  provisions    there,    and    those     who    did 
venture  out  were  slain  or  barbarously  maltreated.     Women 
also  were  abused  and   tortured.     Thirty-eight  men  of  the 
Council,  by   command  of    Flaccus,  and   on  the  emperor's 
birthday  were  publicly  scourged  (August  31st),  and  a  cen- 
turion with  soldiers  was  sent  to  the  Delta  quarter  to  search 
the  houses  for  arms,  which  was  another   pretense  for  vio- 
lence and  plunder.     In  the  middle  of  September,  however, 


(4)  Alexander,  the  Alabarch,  was  at  this  time  the  chief  officer  of 
the  salt-works,  one  of  Rome's  most  important  sources  of  wealth  in 
Egypt.  He  covered  the  temple  gates  of  Jerusalem  with  gold  and 
silver,  wrought  in  Alexandria. 


AGRIPPA    1.    AND    HIS    TIME.  27o 

Flaccus  was  relieved  by  Bussus.  and  was  afterward  tried 
and  in  exile  put  to  death.  Order  was  restored  in  Alexan- 
dria ;  but  the  question  of  rights  could  be  settled  by  the 
emperor  only,  who  was  now  in  distant  Germany  and 
France  (Philo  contra  Flaccus). 

5.     Baxish:\ient  of  Herod  Antipas. 

Agrippa  left  Alexandria  and  arrived  soon  after  in  his 
kingdom.  He  was  well  received,  and,  like  his  uncle  and 
})redecessor,  Philip,  he  governed  with  justice  and  generosity. 
His  sister,  Herodias,  ambitious  and  envious  as  she  was, 
persuaded  her  husband  also  to  obtain  the  crown  and  title 
of  king  from  Caligula.  Antipas  gave  his  best  support  to 
Vitellius  when  he  invaded  Parthia,  and  then  made  his  ap- 
plication in  Rome,  where  he  was  ojiposed  by  both  Vitellius 
and  Agrij)pa,  the  crown  of  Jiidea  and  ^'amaria  being  the 
object  of  Agrippa's  own  ambition.  Antipas  was  charged 
with  conspiring  with  Artaban,  King  of  Parthia,  and 
Agrippa,  who  had  come  to  Rome,  informed  Caligula  that 
his  uncle  had  accumulated  arms  enough  ibr  60,000  to 
70,000  men,  hence  must  have  treacherous  designs  against 
Rome.  Antipas  confessed  that  he  had  collected  the  aims, 
and  this,  without  any  further  investigation,  was  taken  as 
a  proof  of  his  treacherous  intentions.  He  was  banished  to 
Lyons  in  France,  and  his  wife  was  given  a  pension  by  the 
emperor  and  the  liberty  of  choosing  her  luture  place  of 
residence.  Herodias,  however,  would  not  desert  her  hus- 
band, and  went  with  him  into  exile  to  Lyons  and  then  to 
Spain  (39  b.  c),  after  Antipas  had  governed  his  provinces 
thirty-one  years.  These  provinces  were  now  added  to  the 
kingdom  of  Agrippa.  It  is  evident  that  neither  Archelaus 
nor  Antipas  went  alone  into  exile;  a  considerable  number 
of  the  Hebrew  nobility  must  have  gone  with  them  to  France 
and  Spain,  where  Hebrew  colonies  existed  before  this 
period. 

6.     The  Alexandrian  Embassy  to  Caligula. 

The  madness  and  arrogance  of  Caligula  grew  steadily 
upon  him,  till  at  last  he  proclaimed  himself  god  and  ex- 
acted of  his  subjects  divine  worship.  The  dead  Julius 
Cfesar,  Augustus  and  Tiberius  were  also  gods,  but  he  was 
the  highest.  The  Pagan  conceptions  of  Deity  were  so  low 
and  crude  that  the  lord  of  the  empire  was  also  accepted  as 
the  highest  god.  The  head  of  the  01ym])ian  Jupiter  was 
cut  off  and  that  of  Caligula  placed  on  the  statue.      The 


274  ACiRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

imperial  edict  was  obeyed  everywhere  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, except,  of  course,  by  the  Hebrews,  and  the  slightest 
opposition  to  this  crazy  whim  roused  Caligula  to  fury.  The 
Egyptian  Hebrews  were  the  first  victims  of  this  new  phase- 
of  despotism.  The  Hebrews  of  Egypt,  and  of  Alexandria 
especially,  liaving  been  robbed  of  their  rights  as  citizens^ 
Avere  continually  maltreated  and  scorned  by  their  Pagan 
neighbors.  Personal  combats,  riots  and  bloodshed  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  Pagan  citizens  of  Alexandria  sent 
an  embassy  to  Rome,  under  the  leadership  of  wicked  and 
brilliant  Apion,  to  obtain  the  emperor's  consent  to  the  edict 
of  Flaccus  disfranchising  the  Hebrews.  The  Hebrews  on 
their  part  also  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Philo,  the  philosopher,  whose  deptli  of  thought  and 
sentiment  was  equaled  only  by  his  elegance  of  diction  and 
nobility  of  character.  He  was  born  1a.  c.  (and  died  60  a.  c.) 
in  Alexandria,  a  scion  of  the  highest  aristocracy.  His 
brother,  Alexander,  was  the  highest  officer  of  the  Egyptian 
Hebrews,  whose  son,  Tiberius,  was  afterward  Procurator  of 
Judea,  and  occupied  the  highest  offices  of  the  empire. 
Alexander  was  also  among  the  embassadors.  In  a  country 
seat  which  he  was  inspecting,  Caligula  received  the  two- 
embassies  in  a  most  unbecoming  manner.  Running  from 
one  apartment  to  the  other,  criticising  this  and  that,  and 
the  embassies  following  him,  he  wanted  to  be  informed  of 
the  nature  of  their  controversy.  The  Procurator  in  Egypt 
had  already  informed  him  that  the  Hebrews  refused  to 
acknowledge  his  divinity,  and  he  had  no  ear  for  their  pleas. 
His  first  address  to  the  Hebrew  embassadors  was :  "  So 
you  are  the  contemners  of  the  gods,  who  would  not  acknowl- 
edge my  divinity  and  prefer  to  worship  a  nameless  being, 
while  all  besides  you  worship  me?"  Then  he  cursed  and 
blasphemed  God  in  terms  which  Philo  would  not  write 
down.  Being  accused  that  the  Hebrews  made  no  sacrifices 
for  him,  Philo  showed  that  they  did,  and  Caligula  ejacu- 
lated :  "  That  may  be,  but  what  good  does  it  do  me,  that 
you  make  sacrifices  for  me  and  not  to  me?"  He  gave  them 
no  chance  to  speak,  asked  them  questions  and  ran  to  the 
next  apartment  before  an  answer  could  be  given,  behaved 
like  a  crazy  man,  so  that  he  excited  laughter,  and  at  last 
dismissed  them  with  these  words  :  "  These  men  appear  to 
be  less  wicked  than  stupid,  because  they  deny  my 
divinity."  No  decision  followed,  Alexander  was  thrown 
into  prison,  and  the  embass}'  returned  broken  hearted  to 
Alexandria.  Philo  wrote  in  five  books  "The  Embass}"  to 
Caius,"  of  which  but  two  fragments  are  extant.     The  con- 


AGRIPPA   I.    AND    HIS   TIME.  275 

duct  of  that  crazy  emperor  appears  now  very  ludicrous  and 
barbarous;  and  yet  it  was  no  worse  than  that  of  many  a 
high  prehite  or  prince  in  after  times  to  those  who  refused 
to  aclcnovvledge  the  divinity  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  and  yet 
Jesus  was  no  more  a  god  than  Caligula. 

7.     Caligula's  Attempt  to  Supersede  the  God  of 
Israel. 

Caligula  was  determined  to  be  acknowledged  and  wor- 
shiped as  the  highest  God.  The  Hebrews,  refusing  to  grant 
him  that  honor,  he  appointed  Publius  Petronius  President 
of  Syria  to  succeed  Vitellius,  and  charged  him  with  the 
special  duty  to  invade  Judea,  to  carry  the  emperor's  statue 
to  Jerusalem,  and  to  erect  it  in  the  temple.  Petronius  con- 
centrated his  army  at  Ptolemais  and  made  due  preparations  to 
invade  Judea  the  following  spri]ig.  The  Hebrews  came  by  the 
tliousands  to  Ptolemais  to  convince  Petronius  that  he  could 
not  carry  out  the  emperor's  mandate  as  long  as  an}^  of  them 
were  among  the  living;  that  they  would  fight  to  the  last  for 
the  honor  of  God  and  His  laws.  Petronius  replied  that  he 
was  sent  to  Syria  to  enforce  the  emperor's  will,  which  he 
could  not  change,  and  the  Hebrews  insisted  that  they  would 
not  see  their  laws  transgressed  from  fear  of  death,  so  that  a 
war  of  extermination  appeared  inevitable.  PeiLajTS  this 
was  the  determination  of  the  Hebrews  of  Judea  only,  those 
of  Agrippa's  kingdom  might  be  of  another  opinion,  Petronius 
thought,  and  went  to  the  city  of  Tiberius.  However,  he 
found  there  the  same  determination  ;  they  would  not  per- 
mit the  imperial  statue  to  be  erected  even  in  their  city, 
much  less  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  told  him  :  "We 
will  die  rather  than  see  our  laws  transgressed."  Aristobulus, 
the  brother  of  Agrippa  (Agrippa  was  in  Rome),  and  other 
prominent  Hebrews,  persuaded  Petronius  to  appeal  to  the 
clemency  of  Caligula,  and  to  present  to  him  the  state  of 
affairs  as  it  was,  the  death-defying  determination  of  the 
Hebrew  people  in  defense  of  their  laws,  and  the  dire 
necessity  of  depopulating  the  whole  land  before  the  em- 
peror's will  could  be  carried  into  effect.  This  was  a  dan- 
gerous enterprise  for  Petronius,  it  might  have  cost  hini' 
position,  liberty  and  life  ;  yet  he  yielded,  and  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  the  emperor  to  acquaint  him  fully  with  the  state  of 
affairs,  and  to  inform  him  that  he  was  awaiting  his  instruc- 
tions before  commencing  active  hostilities.  The  Hebrews 
were  persuaded  to  return  to  their  peaceful  occupations,  and 
this  advice  and  assurance  by  Petronius  and  the  leading 


276  AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

men  at  Tiberius  were  supported  in  Jerusalem  by  the  chief 
priest,  Simon,  son  of  Boethus,  also  called  "  The  Just."  He 
admonished  the  people  to  keep  quiet  and  to  trust  in  God, 
who  would  perform  miracles  for  them  as  he  had  done  for 
their  fathers  (5).  A  Bath-kol  afterward  confirmed  his 
prophecy,  and  was  recorded  among  the  wonderful  occur- 
rences (6).  Meanwhile  Agrippa  was  not  idle  in  Rome.  As 
the  boon  companion  of  the  emperor,  he  understood  how  to 
win  his  particular  favor.  He  prepared  for  him  a  most 
luxuriant  banquet  with  royal  pomp,  and  when  Caligula's 
stomach  was  well  filled,  and  his  senses  half  benighted,  he 
praised  the  excellent  taste  and  royal  generosity  of  his  ex- 
travagant friend,  and  desired  him  to  ask  any  iiwor  of  him, 
which  he  promised  unconditionally  to  grant.  Agrii)pa  ap- 
parently had  nothing  to  ask  for;  but  being  repeatedly  and 
urgently  encouraged  by  Caligula  to  ask  of  him  something, 
he  asked  of  Caligula  to  revoke  his  command  given  to 
Petronius.  The  emperor  promised  he  would,  although  it 
was  the  very  Avorst  that  could  have  been  asked  of  him. 
When,  however,  the  message  of  Petronius  arrived  inform- 
ing Caligula  of  the  .determined  resistance  of  the  Hebrews 
to  his  will,  and  the  apparent  weakness  of  Petronius,  which 
looked  like  disobedience  and  treason,  his  wrath  was  bound- 
less, and  his  command  to  Petronius  to  place  the  emperor's 
statue  at  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  was  renewed,  even  were 
it  necessary  to  exterminate  half  of  that  rebellious  nation. 
The  ship  bearing  these  dispatches  sailed  slowly,  another 
sailed  faster,  and  this  other  bore  to  the  east  the  news  of 
the  assassination  of  Caligula  in  his  own  palace,  by  the 
hands  of  Charea  and  his  conspirators  (January  24,  41  a.  c). 
The  second  ship  arrived  first.  With  the  godhead  of  Caligula 
the  miseries  of  the  Hebrews  were  overcome  once  more  for 
the  time  being.  The  twenty-second  day  of  Shehat,  the 
date  when  this  news  reached  Jerusalem,  was  made  one  of 
-the  national  half-holidays. 

8.     Agrippa  King  of  Palestine. 

The  pretorian  guard  seized  upon  the  son  of  Drusus  and 
Antonia,  Claudius,  and  proclaimed  him  emperor,  while  the 
senate  deliberated  as  to  how  to  restore  the  republic  and  abolish 
the  imperial  office.  Agrippa  was  now  the  most  important 
man  in  Rome,  and  it  was  by  his  diplomatic  intercession  be- 

(5)  Megili.atii  Taanitii  xi. 

(6)  Ibid,  and  Talmud  Sotah  33  a. 


AGRIPPA   I,    AND    HIS   TIME.  277 

tween  the  two  parties  that  Claiidins  was  acknowledged 
emperor.  He  thus  paid  part  of  the  debt  to  his  patroness, 
Antonia.  Agrippa  was  now  overwhehned  with  honors  and 
power.  The  senate  bestowed  on  him  tlie  consular  dignity, 
Claudius  restored  to  him  the  whole  kingdom  of  Herod  I., 
adding  to  it  the  province  of  Abilene  on  the  Lebanon,  and 
made  a  league  with  him,  ^^hich  was  confirmed  by  oaths  on 
the  forum  in  the  city  of  Rome.  The  Alabarch  of  Alexan- 
dria, Alexander  L3'simachus,  was  released  from  his  prison 
and  sent  to  Egypt,  followed  by  the  imperial  decree  which 
restored  to  the  Egyptian  Hebrews  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges they  had  been  granted  before,  and  especially  "  that 
they  might  continue  in  their  own  customs."  A  similar 
edict  was  published  reinstating  the  Hebrews  all  over  the 
Roman  Empire  in  their  rights  and  privileges  as  citizens 
Avith  special  immunity  "  to  keep  their  ancient  customs  with- 
out being  hindered  so  to  do,"  and  the  coiftmnnd  that  the 
edict  be  engraved  and  everywhere  exposed  to  tbe  public  for 
thirty  successive  days.  Agrippa  gave  his  daughter,  Berence 
to  Marcus,  the  son  of  the  Alabarch,  who,  however,  died  be- 
fore he  married  her.  The  Hebrew  government  being  re- 
stored, and  the  edicts  of  Tiberius  and  Caligula  revoked,  it 
appeared  that  a  new  era  of  prosperity  to  the  Hebrews  had 
opened  (Josephus' Antiq.  xix.,  v.). 

9.     A  Law-Abiding  King. 

The  grandson  of  Herod  I.  was  a  law-abiding  king — not- 
withstanding the  nugatory  impressions  he  had  received  in 
Rome,  and  the  precedents  set  b}'  his  ancestors — and  grate- 
ful to  his  friends  who  had  stood  with  him  in  hours  of 
adversity.  Arriving  in  Jerusalem  he  "offered  all  the  sacri- 
fices that  belonged  to  him,  and  omitted  nothing  which  the 
law  required."  So  did  he  afterward  mixing  with  the  multi- 
tude that  had  come  to  offer  up  the  first  fruits  in  the  tem- 
ple ;  bearing  his  own  basket,  like  every  peasant,  he  appeared 
with  them  before  the  altar  as  the  law  ordains  (7).  When 
in  the  year  42  a.  c.  the  Sabbath  year  closed,  on  the  Feast  of 
Booths,  he  read  the  Law  to  the  assembled  people  according 
to  ancient  custom.  When  he  came  to  the  passage  which 
ordains  that  no  foreigner  should  be  king  of  the  Llebrews. 
he  wept  on  account  of  his  Idumean  extraction.  But  the 
voice  of  the  multitude  exclaiming,  "  thou  art  our  brother," 
assured    him    that    he    was    not  looked   upon   as   a  non- 


(7)        MiSHNAH  Biccurivi  iii.  4. 


278  AGRIPPA   I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

Israelite  (8).  The  highpriests  whom  he  appointed  were 
men  of  known  piety  and  patriotism.  He  appointed  first 
Simon  Boethus,  the  man  who  had  consoled  and  encouraged 
the  people  in  the  time  of  calamity ;  but  soon  removed  him 
again,  perhaps  because  he  was  a  Sadducee,  and  appointed 
the  worthiest  priest  of  his  days,  Jonathan,  son  of  Annas, 
who  had  held  that  office  a  short  time  under  Vitellius.  But 
this  man  declined  the  high  honors,  because,  as  he  said, 
"  God  hath  adjudged  that  I  am  not  at  all  worthy  of  the 
liigh  priesthood."  He  recommended  his  brother,  Matthias, 
of  whom  he  said,  that  he  was  pure  from  all  sin  against  God ; 
and  he  was  appointed  highpriest.  It  is  not  stated  why  he 
was  removed,  and  his  successor,  Elioneus,  son  of  Cantheras, 
was  appointed;  but  it  is  recorded  that  the  latter  also  was  a 
pious  and  patriotic  man  (9),  who  was  the  first  after  John 
Hj^rcan  to  sacrifice  again  the  red  heifer.  Agrippa  re- 
established the  Hebrew  State  upon  the  national  laws,  con- 
sequently the  Great  Sanhedrin  also,  after  a  suspension  of 
thirty-five  years  (6  to  41  a.  c),  was  reconvoked  to  the  tem- 
ple under  the  presidency  of  Gamliel  (or  Gamaliel),  the  son 
of  Simon,  who  was  the  son  of  Hillel,  called  Rabban  Gam- 
liel Haz-zakan. 

10.    The  Gamliel  Sanhedrin. 

The  restoration  of  the  Sanhedrin  with  its  political  and 
judicial  powers  was  the  main  event  in  the  reign  of  Agrippa, 
because  it  was  the  restoration  of  the  national  form  of  gov- 
ernment with  all  its  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  made 
him  the  most  popular  ruler  in  Israel  since  the  days  of  John 
Hyrcan,  so  that  the  rabbinical  sources  like  Josephus  are 
profuse  in  his  praise.  It  was  a  Hillel  Sanhedrin,  hence 
liberal,  reformatory  and  peaceable.  The  grandson  of  Hillel 
presided  over  it  and  an  immediate  disciple  of  Hillel,  Rabbi 
Jochanan  (John)  ben  Saccai,  was  its  chief  justice,  because 
Akabiah  ben  Mahalalel,  who  was  considered  the  most 
worthy  man  of  his  time,  disagreed  with  the  school  in  some 
minor  points,  and  perfect  unanimity  was  considered  essen- 
tial (10).  The  two  scribes  of  this  Sanhedrin  were  John 
and  Nahum  (11).     There  Avere  among  the  prominent  mem- 

(8)  Sotnh  41  a.     See  also  Kethuboih  17  a. 

(9)  f)ipn  p  "iryin"'^S  Mishnah  Farah  iii.  5. 

(10)  EdiMh  V.  G,  7;  Aboth  iii.  1;  Berachoth  19  a;  Sanhedrin  88  a. 
His  HALACHdTii  are  Sanhedrin  77  ;  Sebachim  88;  Bechorolh  26;  Niddah 
19 ;  Negaim  72  and  78. 

(11)  Sanhedrin  lib;  Nazir56;  Peah  ii.  6. 


AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME.  279 

bers  of  this  Sanhedrin  Ishmael  b.  Fabi  (Elishah)  and 
Joshua  b.  Gamala,  afterward  highpriests,  Hanina  (Ananiis), 
highpriest  proxy,  afterward  the  head  of  the  moderate  party, 
-find  many  of  those  teachers  who  were  afterward  counted 
among  the  First  Age  of  Tena'im.  It  is  with  them  that 
the  titles  of  Abba,  Rabbi  and  Rabbon  or  Rabbenu  begin. 
The  hitter  title,  "  Our  Teacher,"  was  conferred  on  the  lawful 
Nassi  only,  because  he  was  considered  the  teacher  of  all 
teachers. 

11.     The  Gamliel  Legislation  and  Teachings. 

Little  is  known  of  the  legislation  of  the  Gamliel  Sanhe- 
drin on  account  of  its  brief  existence.  Laws  were  enacted 
"  for  the  preservation  of  society  "  (D!)'iyn  |ipn  DlC'o)  in  the 
very  spirit  of  Hillel ;  such  as,  a  widow  may  marry  again  if 
any  one  witness  testify  to  the  death  of  her  husband  (12). 
Ori)hans'  funds  loaned  out  need  no  PROZBOL-contract  to  set 
aside  the  law  of  release  (13).  Persons  who  have  gone  be- 
yond the  Sabbath  way  on  the  day  of  rest  in  order  to  per- 
form a  higher  duty,  may  then,  like  other  people,  walk  two 
thousand  cubits  in  any  direction  (14).  Bills  of  divorce 
must  be  so  written  that  no  mistake  can  occur  in  regard  to 
names,  place  or  date  (15).  A  widow's  dowry  must  be  paid 
-at  once  after  her  husband's  death  (16).  "Sadducees  and 
Boethites  lose  none  of  their  rights  by  their  difference  of 
opinion  (17),  which  included  also  the  primitive  Christians 
(18).  The  law  may  be  Avritten  in  Greek  characters  as  well 
-as  in  the  Assyrian  (19).  Public  schools  must  be  supported 
in  every  district,  besides  the  high-schools  in  the  district 
towns,  and  all  children  between  the  ages  of  six  and  seven  up 
to  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  must  frequent  them  (20).  The 
first  reforms   in  Jewish  calendation  belong  to  this  Rabban 


(12)  Jebnmoth  115  a. 

(13)  Guittin  37  a. 

(14)  Bosh  Hns'hannli  23  6. 

(15)  Guittin  32  a  and  34  6. 

(16)  I  hid. 

(17)  Eruhin  68  h. 

(18)  Acts  of  the  Apostles  v.  35  to  39. 

(19)  Compare   Mishnah   Meguillah  i.    8   with   Debarim   Rabbah  i. 

r\'2v  min  iqd  nins^  imrD 

(20)  Baba  Bntlira  21  a.  where  this  enactment  is  ascribed  to  Joshua 
b.  Gamala  before  he  was  highpriest,  but  it  must  naturally  have  been 
enacted  by  the  Sanhedrin,  although  it  may  have  been  proposed  by 
Joshua  b.  Gamala. 


liSO  AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

Gamaliel  (21).  Like  the  Chaldeans  the  Hebrews  counted 
223  synoclical  revolutions  of  the  moon  in  6585  1-3  days, 
Mhich  made  a  lunar  moon  of  29  355-669  days  (established 
by  the  rabbis  in  29  days  12  793-1080  hours) ;  nor  were  they 
ignorant  of  Menton's  luni-solar  cycle,  and  the  discoveries 
and  corrections  by  Hipparchus  of  Bithynia  (160-125  b.  c). 
The  fractions  of  the  lunar  moon  were  intercalated  by  a 
thirtieth  day  of  the  month,  so  that  some  months  had  29  and 
others  30  days  ;  and  the  luni-solar  years  were  adjusted  by 
the  intercalated  thirteenth  month  of  Adar  Sheni  in  seven 
out  of  everv  nineteen  years.  (Established  ])V  the  rabbis 
to  be  the  3,  6,  8,  11,  14,  17  and  19  years  of  the  cycle).  This 
work  of  establishing  years  and  months,  hence  also  the  feasts, 
was  done  by  the  Sanhedrin,  and  from  and  after  Rabbaii 
Gamliel  by  the  president  thereof,  assisted  by  some  col- 
leagues. According  to  ancient  custom,  the  new  moon  had 
to  be  seen,  and  the  witness  to  testify  to  the  fact  before  the 
Wassi  or  his  colleagues,  before  the  new'  moon  day  of  any 
month  could  be  established,  which  gave  rise  to  much  con- 
fusion. Rabban  Gamliel  introduced  the  astronomical  tables 
with  the  presentation  of  the  various  phases  of  the  moon, 
made  use  of  a  sort  of  telescope  (22),  and  had  an  observatory 
on  the  temple  mount  (n^^n  "in  H/yo)  not  only  to  control  the 
witnesses,  but  to  estal)lish  months  and  years  according  to 
astronomical  calculations,  called  afterward  (-nnyn  1"id)  "the 
secret  of  intercalation  "  (23).  This  Rabban  Gamliel,  who  wa& 
so  favorably  disposed  toward  the  Greek  language  and 
literature,  was,  nevertheless,  opposed  to  the  Syrian  transla- 
tions of  Scriptures,  and  commanded  a  Syriac  version  of  the- 
Book  of  Job  to  be  so  disposed  of  (Sabbath  lib  a)  that  it  be  not 
put  into  public  circulation.  He  was  an  opponent  also  of  the 
sacriticial  polity,  and  maintained,  as  he  also  did  in  practice, 
that  the  laws  concerning  the  priests  were  given  to  all  Israel, 
and  every  one  is  his  own  priest,  and  must  live  like  one, 
according  to  the  Law.  (Bruil's  J/eio,  ]>.  51).  His  contro- 
versies with  Sadducees,  Gentiles,  philosophers  and  unbe- 
lievers, as  well  as  his  enactments,   extending   the   charity 

(21)  The  second  E.  Gamliel,  in  all  chronological  matters,  refers  to 
traditions  which  he  rereived  from  his  grandfather:  DIL*'^  'iX  'J^'^lprD 
NDX  "'HX  n"'30  'J^mpO,  Ro^^h  Hashnnah,  23  and  25  n. 

(22)  That  the  ancient  at^tronomers  knew  the  telescope  and  its  use, 
has  been  ?stal)lished  hy  the  anonymous  author  of  the  book  "On 
Mankind,  their  Origin  and  Destiny.'"'  London,  1872,  pp.  704,  705. 

(23)  Jv'<t<h  JTaxhanah  ii.  8 ;  Sabbath  115  ;  Erubin  43  ;  Sanliedrin  11 
and  paral  jiassages. 


A-GRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME.  281 

laws  to  the  Heathens,  shows  that  he  was  a  liberal  repre- 
sentative of  the  Hillel  school,  who  sought  peace  and  con- 
ciliation (24).  As  the  cause  of  all  the  misfortunes  under 
which  his  generation  suffered,  he  laid  down  this  :  "  The 
increase  of  false  judges  increases  the  number  of  false  wit- 
.  nesses.  The  increase  of  calumniators  increases  confiscation. 
The  increase  of  insolence  diminishes  reputation,  honor  and 
glory.  B}'  the  corrupt  doings  of  the  nobility  before  their 
Father  in  Heaven,  a  hypocritical  government  is  raised  over 
them  to  punish  them"  (25).  It  is  supposed  that  Rabban 
Gamliel  lived  to  52  a.  c,  and  when  he  died,  the  honor  of 
the  Law,  purity  and  piety,  died  with  him. 

12.     The  Reign  of  Agrippa. 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  restored  in  Israel,  at  all 
events,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties,  except  the  extremely 
vigorous  Shammaites  and  zealots.  The  national  laws  were 
in  full  force,  the  temple  was  under  tlie  superintendency  of 
pious  and  patriotic  highpriests,  peace  prevailed,  and  the 
good  old  times  appeared  to  return.  The  young  heathens  of 
Doris  carried  a  statue  of  the  Emperor  into  the  s3'nagogue, 
and  erected  it  there,  to  the  chagrin  of  the  Hebrews. 
Agrippa  was  prompt  in  suppressing  the  riot.  He  demanded 
speedy  action  of  Petronius,  the  President  of  Syria,  and  he 
at  once  issued  a  decree  against  that  Pagan  enterprise,  com- 
manding peace  and  order  in  behalf  of  the  Emperor,  which 
settled  the  matter.  Agrippa  paid  close  attention  to  the 
fortifications  of  Jerusalem,  a]id  especially  to  its  northern 
walls,  now  separating  Bezetha  from  the  city.  He  was  dis- 
turbed, however,  in  this  enterprise,  by  Marcus  (or  Marsus), 
the  successor  of  Petronius,  who  suspected  Agrippa's  motives, 
and,  perhaps,  justly  so,  as  his  chances  for  more  liberty  were 
favorable.  Agrippa  having  inherited  the  building  passion 
of  his  grandfather,  erected  palaces  and  beautified  cities. 
He  built  also  a  grand  and  elegant  theater,  and  a  bath  with 
magnificent  porticos,  in  the  city  of  Berytus,  and  at  heavy 
expense  introduced  the  games  and  shows  in  the  Greco- 
Roman  style,  in  Berytus,  Ctesarea  and  other  Gentile  cities. 
Although  this  may  have  been  done  for  political  purposes 
only,  as  will  appear  from  the  sequel,  yet  it  gave  offense  to 
the  extremists,  who  would  not  tolerate  any  Heathen  j^er- 

(24)  Sabbath  30 ;  Abnrlah  Sarah  54  and  65,  with  the  captahi  of 
Agrippa's  host,  as  it  should  read,  viz.:  Silas,  see  Josephus'  Antiq.  xix.  7.; 
Sanhedrin  39  and  92  ;  Guittin  59  b.  Gl,  and   Yerushatmi  ibid.  v. 

(25)  Esther  Rahba  i. 


282  AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

formance.  One  Simon  (Haz-zenuah?)  (26),  who  was  a  dis- 
tinguished teacher,  congregated  a  number  of  rigorous  men 
about  him,  and  while  Agrippa  was  in  Caesarea,  accused  him 
of  an  unholy  and  unworthy  life.  Being  informed  thereof, 
the  king  sent  for  his  opponent,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
Caesarea  had  him  given  a  seat  in  the  theater  next  to  the  mon- 
arch, and  there  asked  him,  ''  What  is  done  in  this  place 
that  is  contrary  to  the  law?"  This  moderation  and  kindness 
of  the  king  overcame  Simon's  wrath  and  zeal.  He  hegged 
the  king's  pardon,  and  received  it.  So  he  disarmed  his 
opponents,  except  one,  Silas,  the  general  of  his  horse,  who 
had  been  his  faithful  boon  companion  in  former  days,  and 
would  now  treat  the  king  as  he  did  formerly  the  frivolous 
and  fast-living  prince.  This  man  would  not  change  his  tone 
and  deportment,  was  exacting  and  insolent;  so  that  after 
repeated  attempts  to  change  his  tone,  Agrippa  was  obliged 
to  keep  him  in  prison  (27).  His  reign  was  prosperous,  his 
income  was  no  less  than  12,000,000  drachmse  a  year, 
although  he  had  remitted  all  taxes  upon  houses  in  Jeru- 
salem. 

13.     Frustrated  Coalition. 

Herod,  the  brother  of  Agrippa,  and  by  his  intercession, 
King  of  Chalcis,  had  nmrried  Berenice,  Agrippa's  daughter. 
Most  of  the  kings  in  the  neighborhood  were  of  Herodian 
descent,  or  related  to  that  family  by  marriage;  and  there 
existed  a  good  understanding  among  them.  A  great  enter- 
tainment given  by  Agrippa  at  Tiberias,  brought  many 
foreign  guests  thither,  and  among  them  also  the  kings  of 
Commagena,  Emesa,  Lesser  Armenia,  Pontus,  and  Chalcis, 
all  relatives  of  Agrippa.  They  had  come,  as  they  main- 
tained, to  witness  the  games,  and  to  enjoy  the  royal  enter- 
tainments. But  Marcus,  who  was  an  enemy  of  Agrippa,  had 
his  suspicions.  He  unexpectedly  appeared  at  Tiberias,  and 
had  those  kings  advised  to  leave,  which  Avas  done,  and 
Agrippa  felt  offended  at  this  rude  interference.  Still,  it  ap- 
pears, Marcus  had  good  reason  to  apprehend  the  intimacy 
of  those  six  kings,  headed  by  a  monarch  who  was  popular 
among  his  people,  and  known  in  Rome  as  a  shrewd  and  *- 
successful  statesman.  There  were  in  their  rear  two  other 
friends   of  the  Hebrews,  Izates,  King  of  Adiabene,  and  a 

(26)_  Not  Simon  ben  Hilled  who  was  certainly  dead  before  his  son 
Gamliel,  was  made  Nassi,  and,  according  to  the  notices  in  the  Talmud 
of  Agrippa's  standing  with  the  Pharisees,  would  not  have  opposed 
him  so  rigorously  and  public' y. 

(27)    Josephus'  Ant.  xix.,  vi.  and  vii. 


AGRIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME.  283 

new  Hebrew  State  in  Mesapotamia  under  two  warlike 
brothers  at  Xeerda  (Xehardea).  A  coalition  of  those  eight 
States,  backed,  perhaps,  by  the  Parthians,  might  have 
proved  too  strong  for  Rome. 

14.     The  Allies  in  the  East. 

There  Avere  two  strong  and  populous  cities  on  the 
Euphrates,  Neerda  (or  Nehardea)  and  Nisibis,  inhabited 
entirely  or  principally  by  Hebrews.  These  were  central 
points"for  the  Hebrews  on^joth  sides  of  the  river.  They  de- 
posited there  their  half-shekels  for  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.; 
Two  brothers,  Asineus  and  Anileus,  weavers  by  trade,  of  Ne- 
hardea, succeeded  in  collecting  about  them  a  number  of 
armed  young  men,  who  gradually  became  a  terror  to  the  prov- 
ince thVough  daring  depredations.  The  Governor  of  Baby- 
lonia, then  a  Partliian  province,  led  a  considerable  force  of 
Parthians  and  Babylonians  against  those  freebooters,  at- 
tacked them,  and  met  with  a  very  disastrous  defeat.  Arta- 
banus,  King  of  Parthia,  on  being  informed  of  the  valor  of  those 
Hebrews,  appointed  Asineus  Governor  of  Babylonia.  This 
upstart  and  his  brother  proved  eminent  warriors.  Asineus 
built  fortresses  and  governed  Mesapotamia  fifteen  years  with 
the  best  success.  Mesapotamia  was.  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, a  Hebrew  State  ( 28 ).  North  of  it  was  Adiabene.  There 
Izates,  the  son  of  King  ]Monobaz.  had  reigned  since  37  a.  c. 
•Queen  Helen,  the  wife  of  Monobaz,  had  embraced  Judaism. 
When  he  died  his  and  Helen's  son  Izates  was  his  successor, 
and  he  also  embraced  Judaism,  first  secreth',  but  then  openly 
after  he,  his  sons  and  his  brother,  Monobaz,  had  been  cir- 
cumcised. Queen  Helen  and  her  son  Monobaz  went  to 
Jerusalem,  in  order  to  worship  in  the  temple  of  God.  They 
became  afterwards  great  benefactors  of  the  Hebrews. 
Izates,  a  pious  and  faithful  man,  occupied  the  throne  of 
Adiabene,  and  was  one  of  the  mightiest  vassals  of  the  King 
of  Parthia.  He  restored  Artiabanusto  the  Parthian  throne 
(51  a.  c),  when  his  governors  conspired  against  him,  and 
fought  with  success  against  the  rebels  in  his  own  country. 
He  reigned  twenty-four  years,  and  after  his  death  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother  Monobaz  (29) ;  so  that  Adiabene  also 


(28)  Josephiis'  Ant  xviii.,  ix. 

(29)  This  Monobaz  resided  in  Jerusalem  before  he  mounted  the 
throne,  and  became  famous  among  the  Hebrews  for  his  munificent 
charity.  Yeruslutlmi,  Peah  i.  1  ;  Tosephta  ibid,  iv.,  and  Babli  Baba 
Bathra  11  b. 


284  A(JKIPPA    I.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

could  be  counted  among  the  Hebrew  States  (30),  which 
might  have  been  united  under  the  lead  of  Agrippa,  whose 
statesmanship  and  patriotism  certainly  inspired  confidence. 

15.     The  Death  of  Agrippa. 

The  festivities  at  Tiberias  having  been  rudely  disturbed 
by  Marcus,  Agrippa  prepared  another  grand  entertainment  at 
Caesarea  in  honor  of  Claudius.  That  city,  and  that  particular 
time  had  been  selected  for  the  shows  and  games,  because  then 
and  there  Agrippa's  friends  had  arranged  a  festival  "  to 
make  vows  for  his  safety;"  "at  which  festival  a  great 
multitude  of  the  principal  persons  was  gotten  together,  and 
such  as  were  of  dignity  throughout  his  province,"  Josephus- 
remarks.  Then  and  there,  by  the  interference  of  Blastus, 
the  king's  chamberlain,  Agrippa  was  reconciled  to  the 
Tyrians  and  tSidonians  (Acts.  xii.  20),  who  had  been  sup- 
plied with  food  at  the  king's  expense.  It  was  a  popular 
demonstration,  faintly  covered  by  the  shows  and  games  in 
honor  of  the  emperor.  On  this  occasion,  when  Agrippa 
appeared  in  royal  attire,  the  Heathens  among  his  admirers 
exclaimed  :  "  Thou  art  a  god  "  (equal  to  the  emperor),  and 
he  resented  it  not.  Shortly  after  he  saw  the  fatal  owl,  or 
rather  he  was  poisoned.  Violent  pain  prostrated  him.  The 
people  lamented,  and  pr;iye  I  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  still 
Agrippa  died  after  five  days  of  violent  pains,  in  the  fifty- 
fourth  year  of  his  life  (44  a.  c.)  Superstition  expounded 
this  event  to  please  itself;  but  preceding  and  subsequent 
events  confirm  the  suspicion  that  Agrippa,  having  grown  too 
mighty  for  Rome's  interests,  was  poisoned,  as  was  quite 
usual  at  the  time,  when  vile  Messalina,  the  infamous  wife 
of  Claudius,  with  her  freedmen,  shed  the  best  blood  of 
Rome,  sold  her  charms  and  the  offices  to  the  highest  bid- 
ders, and  had  in  Marcus,  the  President  of  Syria,  one  of  her 
most  obedient  servants.  Perhaps  it  was  an  act  of  revenge 
on  the  part  of  Marcus,  who  was  shortly  after  removed  from 
office  by  Agrippa's  infiuence  over  the  emperor.  When  the 
king  was  dead  and  buried,  the  Pagan  inhabitants  of 
Csesarea  and  Sebaste  gave  vent  to  their  hatred  and  brutality. 
The  soldiers  entered  the  king's  palace,  stole  tiie  statues  of 
his  daughters,  and  deposited  them  in  the  brothels,  cele- 
brated public  frasts  to  Charon,  drank,  and  conducted  them- 
selves in  a  beastly  manner.  The  wrath  of  the  Pagans  had 
been  stifled,  and  broke  forth  with  renewed  fury  after  the 
close  of  this  brief  period  of  national  revival  and  glory.     A 

(30)    Josephus'  Antiq.  xx,  2  to  4. 


AGRIPPA    I.    AND    ITTS    TIME;  285 

large  number  of  coins  is  extant  bearing  the  inscription, 
"  Agrijjpa,  the  Great  King,  Friend  of  Caesar,"  around  the 
crowned  bust  of  Agri])pa ;  with  a  standing  Fortuna,  bearing 
the  cornucopia,  and  leaning  on  an  anclior,  inscribed  with 
"  Caesarea,"  or  a  flying  Victoria,  bearing  a  crown  with  both 
hands,  on  the  reverse.  Coins  of  Herod  of  Chalcis,  with 
similar  etiigies  and  inscriptions,  are  also  extant  (31). 

16.     The  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

Under  the  reign  of  Agrippa  and  the  Gamliel  Sanhedrin, 
when  civil  and  religious  liberty  was  again  respected,  the 
Disciples  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  ample  opportunity  for 
uniting  and  forming  the  nucleus  of  the  future  societ}^  of 
Christians.  The  book,  however,  which  contains  the  first 
acts  of  the  Apostles,  is  legendary  (32).  It  appears  that  the 
capture  of  Jesus,  and  his  sudden  death,  made  temporarily 
an  end  of  the  Messianic  drama  and  excitement  (33).  His 
<iisciples  fled  to  Galilee,  and.  perhaps,  remained  there  to  the 
jear  41  a.  c.  (34).  Recovering  from  their  consternation,  the 
impressions  which  their  master  had  made  upon  them,  and 
the  lessons  he  had  taught  them,  revived  in  their  minds,  to- 
gether with  the  boundless  veneration  then  felt  for  one's 
teacher  and  his  words.  Every  word  of  Jesus  which  they 
could  recollect  became  an  oracle  to  them,  as  the  words  of 
Hillel,  Shammai,  or  any  other  teacher,  had  become  to  his 
respective  disciples ;  and  ever}^  word  was  carefully  con- 
sidered and  expounded,  to  be  understood  or  misunderstood. 
They  had,  besides,  the  conviction  that  Jesus  had  died  for 
them  ;  that  he  had  voluntarily  sacrificed  his  life  to  save  them 
and  many  more,  who  would  have  become  victims  to  the 
Roman  sword,  if  the  sedition   had  not  been  prevented  by 


(31)  Lenormani's  Numismatique  de  rois  grees,  and  the  cabinet  in 
the  Paris  Library. 

(32)  Among  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  "The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles"  is  the  least  reliable  as  a  historical  source  (See  our  Origin 
of  Cliristianity,  Cin'innat',  18GS).  Its  author,  supposed  to  be  Luke, 
contradicts  tlie  Gospels  in  his  accounts  of  Judas  Iscariot  and  the 
ascension  ;  contradicts  Paul's  Epist'es  in  the  life  of  that  Apostle  ;  con- 
tradicts the  Pentateuch  in  his  Stephen  speech;  and  contradicts 
Josephus  in  many  points.  The  book  is  doctrinal  and  harmonizing  in 
its  tendeiicj'',  to  cover  over  the  differences  existing  between  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  Jew  and  Gentile  Christians ;  it  was  written  in  the  second 
half  of  the  second  century,  partly  from  Church  traditions  and  partly 
from  notes  of  Paul's  travels,  marked  "  we  ;"  and  was  not  finally  ac- 
cepted as  canonical  until  the  fifth  century. 

(33)  Tacitus,    Annals  xv.,  xliii. 

(34)  Matthew  xxviii.  16 ;  John  xxi. 


286  AGRIPPA    1.    AND    HIS    TIME. 

the  self-sacrifice  of  Jesus.  These  two  fechngs,  comhined  in 
men  of  siinpHcity,  enthusiasm,  creduHty  and  many  eccen- 
tricities, must  have  wrought  up  tlieir  minds  to  a  state  of 
mourning  which  is  bewildering  in  itself;  of  ecstacy  and 
visions,  which  solves  the  most  difficult  problems  as  satis- 
factorily to  tlie  excitable  as  the  solution  is  unsatisfactory 
to  reas(Mi.  The  Bible,  which  was  to  the  Hebrew  tlie  book, 
in  wliich  all  and  everything  must  be  contained,  was  con- 
sulted in  order  to  discover  therein  the  words  of  Jesus,  the 
incidents  of  his  life  and  death.  Illiterate  as  those  disci- 
ples were,  and  in  that  peculiar  state  of  mind,  they  natu- 
rally found  in  the  Bible  what  they  did  seek ;  especially  as 
they  did  not  distinguish  between  facts  and  tropes,  and 
where  incidents  did  not  exist  they  were  easily  developed  by 
amplification  and  personification,  or  existing  ones  shaped 
"  to  fulfill  Scriptures."  The  disciples  of  Jesus  applied  the 
peculiar  methods  of  expounding  Scriptures  allegoricall}', 
superseding  facts  or  laws  by  exotic  precepts ;  severing  any 
passage  from  its  context,  and  imposing  a  foreign  sense  on 
it ;  making  facts  of  poetical  tropes ;  and  above  all,  chang- 
ing the  political  history  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  into  a  new 
semi-divine  fabric  of  government,  a  fantastic-political  ap- 
plication of  a  form  of  government,  defunct  for  ten  cen- 
turies. All  of  which  was  illegitimate,  unscientific,  and 
contrary  to  the  juridical  exegese  of  that  age.  Still,  by 
this  method,  they  succeeded  in  discovering  in  Scriptures 
their  own  ideas  and  wishes  concerning  their  martyred  mas- 
ter, and  came  to  these  conclusions  : 

1.  Jesus  actually  was  the  Messiah,  who  did  die  the 
death  of  a  malefactor  in  order  to  rouse  the  survivors  to  re- 
pentance of  sin,  so  that  by  sincere  repentance  the  remission 
of  sins  and  the  restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
might  come  to  pass. 

2.  Jesus,  though  slain,  is  not  dead  ;  he  has  been  caught 
up  to  Heaven,  and  Avill  shortly  return  to  occupy  the  throne 
of  David  in  the  restored  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

3.  Those  who  repent  their  sins,  believe  in  Jesus,  and 
faithfully  wait  for  his  second  advent,  will  be  the  first  and 
highest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

When  Agrippa  had  mounted  the  throne  of  Judea,  some 
of  them,  styling  themselves  Apostles  and  witnesses  of  the 
Messiah,  could  venture  to  Jerusalem,  and  eleven  of  them 
did  come,  elected  a  twelfth  man  (Matthew),  and  established 
a  communistic  and  cenobitic  society  without  a  name,  in 
imitation  of  similar  Essene  colonies.  A  number  of  men 
and  Avomen,  said  to  have  been  one  hundred  and  twenty 


AGRIPPA   1.    AND    HIS   TIME.  287 

lived  together  in  one  house  and  ate  at  one  table,  in  a  state 
of  ecstacy  and  paroxysm,  which  they  called  Holy  Ghost, 
Paraclete  or  Bath-kol.  The  twelve  apostles  were  the  rulers 
of  the  society  in  its  infancy,  till  atterward  stewards  and 
evangelists  were  appointed  to  assist  them.  Those  men, 
preaching  repentance,  prophesying  the  speedy  restoration  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  the  throne  of  David,  and  lead- 
ing a  retired  and  ascetic  life,  must  have  been  looked  upon 
as  benigiited  fantasts  by  the  enlightened  citizens  of  Jerusa- 
lem, altiiough  the  simple  and  ignorant  among  the  citizens 
and  pilgrims  must  have  considered  them  saints.  Anyhow, 
they  were  unmolested  during  the  reign  of  Agrippa,  and  as 
long  thereafter  as  they  did  not  interfere  Avith  the  hiws  of 
the  land.  That  one  of  the  Apostles,  James,  was  slain,  and 
Peter  was  arrested  by  Agrippa  (Acts  xii.)  is,  therefore,  not 
true,  because  the  miracle  and  the  massacre  of  the  soldiers 
connected  with  the  release  of  Peter  can  not  be  true ;  the 
names  James  and  Simon  (Peter)  are  taken  from  another 
story,  reported  by  J'osephus  (Antiq.  xx.,  v.  2)  ;  and  besides, 
this  is  reported  as  the  last  persecution  of  the  Apostles  (Acts 
xii.  17),  when  tlie  first  took  place  under  the  highpriest 
Ananias  (Acts  iv.  (>),  who  was  the  second  highpriest  after 
the  death  of  Agrippa  (.Josephus  ihid.).  The  author  of  the 
Acts,  in  writing  that  notice,  made  a  mistake  of  several  years  ; 
for  in  the  3'ear  62  a.  c,  James,  the  brother  of  Jesus,  was 
slain,  as  we  shall  narrate  hereafter.  Agrip])a  and  the  Gam- 
liel  Sanhedrin  were  certainly  not  guilty  of  the  persecution 
of  any  religious  sect. 


288  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AM)    ITS    EFFECTS. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


Military  Despotism   and  its  Effects  (4-'j  to  66  A.  C), 


1.     The  Procurator  Again. 

Agrippa  left  three  daughters  and  one  son.  Bernice,  six- 
teen years  old,  was  married  to  Herod  of  Chalcis  ;  Mariamne, 
ten  years  old,  had  been  espoused  by  Julius  Archelaus 
Epiphanes,  and  Druscilia,  seven  years  old,  by  the  King  of 
Commagena.  The  son,  Agrippa  II.,  seventeen  years  old. 
was  then  in  Rome,  where  he  was  being  educated  under  the 
care  of  the  emperor.  Claudius,  in  a  decree,  called  Agrippa 
Junior  "  my  friend,  whom  I  have  brought  up  and  now  have 
with  me,  and  who  is  a  person  of  very  great  piety  "  (1). 
The  friendship  of  Claudius  for  Agrippa  I.  and  his  family  ap- 
pears to  have  been  sincere  and  consistent.  Informed  of 
Agrippa's  death  and  the  shameless  conduct  of  the  soldiers 
of  Csesarea,  he  recalled  Marcus  from  Syria,  as  Agrippa  had 
requested  him  to  do,  and  sent  him  in  his  place  Cassius 
Longinus ;  commanded  that  the  legions  of  Csesarea  and 
Sebaste  should  be  sent  to  Pontus  ;  and  was  willing  to  send 
to  Palestine  Agrippa  II.  as  successor  to  his  father,  and  to 
reconfirm  the  existing  league  by  oath.  But  Claudius  was 
no  longer  the  lord  of  Rome ;  his  wife  and  freedmen  gov- 
erned, and  they  knew  how  to  persuade  the  weak  emperor 
not  to  intrust  so  important  a  kingdom  to  so  young  a  man. 
The  policy  against  the  Hebrews  was  not  changed,  the  sol- 
diers were  not  sent  to  Pontus  and  not  punished  otherwise ; 
Cuspus  Fadus  was  appointed  procurator  of  Judea,  and  mil- 
itary despotism  again  assumed  its  iron  scepter  over  un- 
happy Palestine  (45  a.  c).  No  reason  is  assigned  for  the 
assassination  of  Silas,  the  late  king's  master  of  horse,  in 

(1)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  i.  2. 


MILITARY   DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  289 

his  prison  by  order  of  Herod,  King  of  Chalcis,  except  per- 
gonal enmity  {Ihid.  xix.,  viii.  3). 

2.     Doings  of  Fadus. 

The  Hebrews,  for  a  number  of  years,  had  been  used 
again  to  the  blessings  of  free  government  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  their  national  laws.  These  being  suddenly  replaced 
by  the  military  rule  under  a  foreign  master,  dissatisfaction 
and  insurrection  were  sure  to  come  again.  Even  at  the 
beginning  of  this  administration,  seditions  broke  out  at  two 
diherent  points.  Some  people  at  the  eastern  boundary  of 
Perea,  having  a  quarrel  with  the  Philadelphians  about  a 
certain  village  on  the  line,  seized  it  and  defeated  the  Phila- 
delphians. As  in  Cffisarea  and  Sebaste,  so  also  at  this 
point,  Fadus  sided  with  the  Pagans  against  the  Plebrews, 
had  three  of  their  leaders  arrested,  slew  one  of  them,  Han- 
nibal, and  expatriated  the  two  others,  Amram  and  Eleazar, 
without  calling  the  Pliiladelpliians  to  any  account.  Insur- 
rectionary bodies  forming  again  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  whom  Josephus  calls  robbers,  Fadus  put  them 
down  by  force  of  arms,  captured  and  executed  one  of  their 
chiefs,  Tolomy,  although  others  escaped.  Having  thus 
struck  terror  among  the  country  people,  Fadus  began  his 
usurpations  in  Jerusalem.  He  demanded  the  sacerdotal 
vestments  of  the  highpriest  and  the  king's  crown  to  be 
deposited  again  under  his  control  in  Fort  Antonio,  which 
signified  not  only  the  assumption  of  the  regal  powers,  but 
also  exclusive  dominion  over  the  temple  and  its  treasury. 
Longinus,  the  President  of  Syria,  had  come  to  Jerusalem 
with  a  sufficioit  military  escort,  to  enforce  the  demands  of 
Fadus.  The  people,  determined  not  to  submit  to  the 
usurpation,  finally  prevailed  upon  the  Roman  rulers  to 
grant  them  permission  to  send  an  embassy  to  Rome  to  have 
this  matter  decided.  Hostages  were  given  to  the  procura- 
tor and  the  embassy  departed  for  Rome. 

3.     The  Theudas  Sedition. 

The  popular  indignation  was  roused  by  the  usurpations 
of  Fadus  ;  the  belief  in  miracles  had  received  a  fresh  im- 
petus by  the  Messianic  commotion  under  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
and  the  teachings  of  his  disciples  ;  and  so,  another  prophet 
could  rise  with  pretensions  to  work  miracles  and  save  the 
people.  His  name  was  Theudas.  He  congregated  a  num- 
ber of  credulous  admirers   at  the  Jordan   River,  which  he 


290  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

promised  to  divide  for  them,  and  do  other  great  and  mar- 
velous things.  The  number  of  his  admirers  was  only  about 
four  hundred  (2),  and  their  pretensions,  it  appears,  were  not 
very  dangerous  (3).  Still  Fadus  embraced  this  opportunity, 
sent  a  troop  of  horsemen  to  the  Jordan,  slew  and  captured 
many  of  the  deluded  visionaries,  and  among  the  latter,  also 
Theudas,  who  was  beheaded,  and  his  head  exhibited  in 
Jerusalem.  The  second  Messianic  drama  ended  as  did  the 
first,  ten  years  before. 

4.     Herod  of  Chalcis,  Chief  Ruler  of  the  Temple. 

The  embassy  of  the  Hebrews  Avas  successful  in  Rome. 
Agrippa  interceded  with  Claudius  in  behalf  of  his  people ; 
an  imperial  decree  was  issued  addressed  to  the  '"  magis- 
trates, senate  (4)  and  people,  and  the  whole  nation  of  the 
.Tews,"  in  which  the  emperor  said  :  "  I  would  have  every 
one  worship  God  according  to  the  laws  of  his  own  coun- 
try," and  granted  the  request  of  the  Hebrews,  as  had  been 
done  ten  years  before  by  Vitellius.  Herod,  the  King  of 
Chalcis,  was  appointed  chief  ruler  of  the  temple,  and  after 
his  death  Agrippa  II.  exercised  that  authority.  Fadus  was 
recalled  and  Tiberius  Alexander  succeeded  him.  Herod 
began  the  exercise  of  his  authority  by  appointing  high- 
priest  Joseph,  the  son  of  Camus  or  Camydus  (46  a.  c.)  to 
supersede  the  last  highpriest  appointed  by  Agrippa.  How- 
ever, the  son  of  Camus  was  not  long  retained  in  office ; 
Herod  appointed  as  his  successor,  Ananias,  the  son  of 
Nebedus  (5). 

5.     Administration  of  Tiberius  Alexander. 

The  successor  of  Fadus  was  Tiberius  Alexander,  the  son 
of  the  Alabarch  of  Alexandria,  who  had  embraced  Pagan- 
isrn  and  advanced  to  the  highest  positions  in  the  empire. 
He  began  his  administration  with  the  capture  and  crucifix- 
ion of  James  and  Simon,  sons  of  Juda,  of  Galilee.  But 
then  Palestine  was  visited  by  a  great  famine,  and  the  land 
was  as  quiet  as  a  graveyard.  It  was  during  this  distressing 
famine  that  Queen  Helen,  of  Adiabene,  who  resided  in  her 
own  palace  in  Acra,  as  well  as  her  sons,  King  Izates,  and  hia 

(2)  Acts  of  the  Apostles  v.  36. 

(3)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  v.  1. 

(4)  Hence  the  Sanhodrin  had  not  been  dissolved  again. 

(5)  47  A.  c.    Josephus   Ibid,  xx.,  v.  2,  under  whom  the  first  prose- 
cution of  the  Apostles  took  place. 


MILITARY   DESPOTISM   AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  291 

brother,  Monobaz,  distinguished  themselves  as  the  bene- 
factors of  the  poor.  She  imported  large  quantities  of  corn 
and  dried  figs  from  Alexandria  and  Cyprus  which  were 
distributed  among  the  needy.  King  Izates  sent  large  sums 
of  money  to  Jerusalem  for  the  poor,  and  his  brother  dis- 
tributed all  he  had  (6). 

6.     Conflict  of  the  Apostles  with  the  Authorities. 

The  conflict  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with 
the  authorities  at  Jerusalem  took  place  after  the  Theudas 
sedition  (7)  and  when  Ananias  was  highpriest  (8),  hence  in 
the  year  47  a.  c.  The  massacre  following  the  Theudas 
commotion  must  have  caused  those  authorities  to  watch 
carefully  all  pretended  prophets  and  workers  of  miracles, 
whose  enterprise  endangered  the  lives  of  credulous  multi- 
tudes. This  was  certainly  also  to  the  disadvant^ige  of  the 
Apostles,  who  pretended  to  work  miracles,  and  appealed  to 
those  very  masses  whose  credulity  and  excitability  were 
most  to  be  apprehended.  Those  Apostles  practiced  thauma- 
turgy  and  necromancy.  They  cured  the  sick,  drove  out 
evil  spirits  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  as  others  did  in  the  name 
of  King  Solomon  (9),  and  healed  wounds  and  sores  by 
whispering  over  them  magic  spells  (10).  All  this  was  con- 
trary to  the  Law  of  Moses  (11),  although  in  time  of  peace 
and  order,  it  was  not  strictly  enforced,  so  that  Essenes  and 
other  thaumaturgists  were  looked  upon  as  harmless  men. 
The  Apostles,  on  their  part,  were  obliged  to  procure  the 
means  of  subsistence  for  a  whole  congregation,  and  the  year 
47  A.  c.  was  one  of  distressing  famine.  They  did  no  kind 
of  work,  and  w^re  obliged  to  exercise  their  practice  of 
thaumnturgy  and  necromancy  for  a  living,  as  other  He- 
brews did  in  Rome  and  elsewhere.  Therefore,  and  not  on 
account  of  preaching  any  doctrine,  Peter  and  John  were  ar- 
rested and  placed  before  a  council  of  priests.  The  judges 
treated  the  prisoners  very  leniently.  They  merely  warned 
them  not  to  excite  the  people  and  not  to  practice  thauma- 
turgy  and  necromancy  (Acts  iv.),  and  then  dismissed  them. 


(j)    Jopephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  ii.  5 ;  Yerushalmi  Peah  i.  1,  and  parai- 
lel  passages. 

(7)  Acts  V.  36. 

(8)  Jhld.  iv.  6. 

(9)  Josei)lins'  Antiq.  viii.,  ii.  5  "  Wars  vii.,  vl.  3. 

(10)  HD':'-!  hv  K'n'h     Pee  the  story  of  the  Apostle  James  and  the 
nephew  of  Rabbi  IsJTinael,  Abockih  Sar-ah,  27  6. 

(11)  Deut.  xviii.  9-14. 


292  MILITAKV    DKSI'OTIS.M    AND    ITS    EFFKCTS. 

But  tlie  Apostles  did  not  desist  froiii  the  forbidden  work, 
and  all  of  them  were  arrested.  This  time  it  was  Kabban 
Gamliel  who  defended  them  before  their  judges  (Aets  v. 
34),  and  they  were  dismissed  with  the  most  lenient  punish- 
ment that  could  be  inflicted  for  contenjjjt  of  law  after  a 
forewarning ;  they  received  stripes  and  another  warning  to 
stop  those  practices  (Acts  v.).  The  Apostles,  however, 
looked  upon  that  humiliation  as  a  sacriflce  to  their  cause, 
and  not  only  continued  glorifying  their  martyred  master 
and  proclaiming  loudly  their  new  doctrine,  but  also  prac- 
ticing thauinaturgy  and  necromaucv.  They  addressed 
themselves  mostly  to  foreign  Plebrews  sojourning  in  Jerusa- 
lem (Acts  ii.  9 ;  vi.  9),  who  were  more  inclined  to  believe  in  a 
coming  ^lessiah  than  were  the  Hebrews  of  Palestine.  They 
continued  their  work  in  spite  of  all  forewarnings,  until  it  led 
to  a  riot,  in  which  one  of  the  evangelists  or  stewards  of  the 
congregation,  whose  name  is  said  to  have  been  Stephen, 
lost  his  life  (12).  This  man's  blood  innocently  shed,  it  is 
maintained,  became  the  cause  of  Paul's  conversion,  to 
which  we  refer  in  another  paragraph  of  this  chapter.  It 
stopped  the  work  of  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem,  and  broke 
up  the  communistic  society;  although  many  of  them  re- 
mained in  Jerusalem  and  in  close  communication  (Acts  xii. 
11).  The  Apostles  and  evangelists,  however,  began  their 
work  outside  of  the  city,  and  with  more  success,  especially 
iit  Cttsarea,  Joppe,  Sebaste,  Damascus  and  Antioch.  "  They 
spake  with  tongues  and  ])ropliesied,"  not  only  the  Apostles, 
but  also  all  baptized  by  them,  which  was  a  sign  of  having 
received  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  explained  by  Paul  (13)  to 
have  been  so  ;  the  proselytes  claimed  or  were  persuaded  to  be- 
lieve they  possessed  "  gilts  of  grace  "  by  their  conversion,  su- 
perior faith,  wisdom  or  eloquence,  the  gift  of  prophecy,  the 
power  to  work  miracles,  to  heal  the  sick,  to  drive  out  evil  si")ir- 
its,  to  speak  diverse  tongues  or  to  expound  them.  This  speak- 
ing with  tongues  or  diverse  tongues  was  a  peculiar  supersti- 
tion. The  medium,  supposed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  the 

(12)  The  historical  nucleus  of  Acts  vi.  and  vii.  can  not  possibly 
be  more  than  a  vulgar  row,  as  the  numerous  mistakes  in  those  ciiap- 
ters  sliow,  and  as  it  is  a  matter  of  impossibility  that  the  liighest 
authorities  ot"  a  civilized  country  sliould  conduct  themselves  in  the 
manner  described  there.  Besides,  tlie  name  Stephen  throws  suspi- 
cion on  the  wliole  story  ;  for,  like  Simon  and  James,  it  is  taken  from 
a  narrative  of  Josephus  (Antiq.  xx.,  v.  4),  that  name  occurs  nowhere 
else  in  Hebrew  records :  and  from  a  rabbinical  legend  referring 
to  the  conversion  story  of  Paul,  as  does  also  this  story.  See  our 
-Origin  of  Christianity,  Cliaj:).  viii. 

(lo)     Corinthians  xii. 


MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  295 

Holy  Ghost  in  a  state  of  violent  ecstasy,  did  not  speak  in- 
telligible words  to  his  audience ;  he  ejaculated  inarticulate 
groans  or  shrieks,  accompanied  by  wild  gesticulations,  and 
then  either  he  or  another  of  the  company  expounded  the 
supposed  revelation.  Paul  opposed  this  superstition  among- 
his  proselytes  in  Corinth.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that 
pretensions  of  this  kind  could  find  credence  among  the 
illiterate  only,  and  how  dangerous  such  practices  are  to  that 
class.  Reason  and  intelligence  are  set  at  naught,  imagina- 
tion and  self-delusion  are  wrought  up  to  an  uncontrollable 
point,  to  believe  or  even  see  an^'thing  almost  in  the  realm  of 
impossibilities.  And  yet,  if  Paul  is  to  be  trusted,  the  Apos- 
tles and  Evangelists  were  engaged  in  giving  such  seances, 
and  made  use  of  these  pretensions  and  practices  to  convert 
people  to  their  own  belief;  only  that  the  Holy  Ghost  could 
not  be  brought  upon  the  i)roselytcs  except  by  one  of  the 
Apostles  themselves,  and  this  alleged  fact  laid  the  founda- 
tion to  a  new  hierarchy.  Nascent  Christianity  was  a  small 
sect,  and  would  have  gone  under  with  all  the  other  sects  in 
the  catastrophe,  if  it  had  not  been  for  one  young  man, 
known  to  us  under  the  assumed  name  of  Paul,  ''  the  small 
one,"  who  seized  upon  this  commotion  and  turned  it  into 
an  entirely  different  channel.  But  Ave  can  not  review  his 
work  here.  We  must  tirst  narrate  the  development  of  facts 
in  his  age. 

7.     Agrippa  II.,  King  of  Chalcis, 

In  the  eighth  year  of  Claudius,  hence  toward  the  close 
of  48  A.  c,  Herod  of  Chalcis  died.  Although  he  left  three 
sons,  Claudius  gave  that  kingdom  to  Agri})pa  II.,  who  re- 
mained in  Rome  and  had  that  little  country  governed  by 
others.  Four  years  later,  Claudius  gave  Chalcis  to  the 
oldest  son  of  Herod,  Aristobul,  and  a})pointed  Agrippa 
king  of  the  tetrarchy  of  Phihp,  together  witli  Batanea, 
Trachonitis  and  Abila.  He  was  also  the  chief  ruler  of  the 
temple.  The  four  original  provinces  of  Palestine,  Judea, 
Galilee,  Samaria  and  Perea,  remained  an  imperial  province, 
and  Cumanus  was  sent  there  as  procurator  (48  a.  c). 

8.     Crushing  Slaughter  on  Passover. 

To  maintain  the  peace  was  the  first  object  of  the  Ro- 
man procurators,  only  they  did  not  know  how  to  do  it 
among  an  intelligent  but  dissatisfied  people.  They  at- 
tempted it  by  the  usurpation  of  power  and  the  application 
of  brute  force,  which  made  the  evil  worse  with  every  pass- 


294  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

inj];  day.  Cumanus  lield  the  same  erroneous  views,  which 
led  to  the  following  horrible  catastro]>hies.  A  vast  number 
of  pilgrims  assembled  in  Jerusalem  to  celebrate  the  Pass- 
over (48  A.  c).  Cumanus  was  frightened  by  the  immense 
concourse  of  people,  and  apprehended  mischief.  He  placed 
a  regiment  on  guard  duty  in  and  upon  the  temple  cloisters, 
which  innovation  must  have  chagrined  the  pilgrims.  Still 
everything  passed  off  peaceably  for  three  days.  On  the 
fourth  day,  however,  one  of  the  soldiers  outraged  common 
decency  by  making  an  indecent  exposure  of  his  body  to 
the  multitude  in  the  temple  court.  This  enraged  the  wor- 
shipers, who  construed  it  as  an  affrontery  offered  to  God 
more  tlian  the  Hebrews,  and  loudly  maintained  that  Cuma- 
nus had  instructed  his  soldiers  to  insult  the  community. 
Cumanus,  instead  of  punishing  the  soldier  and  appeasing 
the  people,  sent  his  whole  garrison  up  to  Fort  Antonio,  and 
exposed  the  lives  of  tens  of  thousands  to  the  hostile  arms. 
Before  an  attack  had  been  actually  made  upon  the  people, 
the  multitude  fled,  panic  stricken.  The  temple  gates  were 
narrow,  the  crowd  large,  with  the  Roman  arms  glittering 
behind  it,  thus  one  of  those  horrible  catastrophics  ensued 
Avhich  has  so  often  repeated  itself  among  horriued  masses. 
The  jnultitude,  crazed  and  unmanageable,  crowded,  thronged 
and  trampled  one  another  under  foot  in  a  wild  stampede, 
which  cost  the  lives  of  twenty  thousand  innocent  men, 
women  and  children,  and  threw  the  city  into  a  state  of  in- 
describable sadness  and  mourning.  This,  perhajDS,  better 
than  any  other  event,  tells  the  cause  why  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  arrested  before  the  feast,  and  Avhy  his  disciples, 
together  with  all  innovators  and  impostor?,  were  so  much 
dreaded  by  the  authorities  in  Jerusalem.  The  lives  of  tens 
of  thousands  depended  on  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and 
those  eccentric  saviors,  prophets,  Messiahs,  thaumaturgists 
naturally  created  excitement,  uproar  and  imprudent  sedi- 
tion, although  their  motives  may  have  been  religious  and 
patriotic. 

9.     The  Thue  Stephen  Story. 

As  though  the  cup  of  Avoe  had  not  been  filled  to  the 
brim,  Cumanus  added  another  outrage  to  the  first.  A  man 
Avas  robbed  near  Jerusalem.  His  name  was  Stephen,  and 
lie  was  a  servant  of  Caesar,  Avho,  perhaps,  carried  the  booty 
to  a  place  of  safety.  That  this  must  have  been  done  by  the 
])ilgrims  who  denounced  the  soldier's  indecency  in  the  tem- 
ple, wns  the  supposition  of  Cumanus.  Instead  of  arresting 
the  guilty  parties,  he  sent  his  soldiers  to  the  neighboring 


MILITAllY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  295 

"villages  to  plunder  them  and  to  arrest  their  principal  men. 
The  soldiers  did  terrible  execution;  they  took  or  destroyed 
all  they  could  find,  and  one  of  them  seized  a  scroll  of  the 
Law  and,  Avith  imprecations  and  scurrilities,  tore  it  in 
pieces  before  the  horrified  villagers.  This  sacrilege  was 
worse  than  the  first  in  the  estimation  of  the  people,  and 
Cumanus  was  obliged  to  have  that  soldier  beheaded,  in 
order  not  to  appear  implicated  in  those  outrages. 

10.     The  Quarrel  with  the    Samaritans,  51  to  53  a.  c. 

The  decline  of  power  in  Jerusalem  always  encouraged 
the  enemies  abroad  to  acts  of  violence.  This  time  the 
Samaritans  were  the  aggressors.  Pilgrims  from  Galilee 
were  attacked  at  Ginea,  a  Samaritan  village,  and  many 
of  them  killed.  In  vain  did  the  Galileans  demand  jus- 
tice of  Cumanus ;  the  Samaritans  had  bribed  him,  and  he 
was  on  their  side.  The  injured  men,  however,  resolved 
upon  taking  the  matter  into  their  own  hands  and  effected  a 
military  organization  under  the  lead  of  Elcazar  ben  Dineus, 
a  guerrilla  chief  of  that  neigliljorhood ;  invaded  Samaria, 
plundered  and  burned  several  villages.  Cumanus  marched 
against  them  Avith  an  adequate  force.  In  the  first  conflict 
many  of  the  Galileans  fell  and  others  were  captured.  But 
this  might  have  served  as  a  mere  signal  to  a  general  insur- 
rection, which  the  authorities  in  Jerusalem  dreaded.  They 
sent  some  of  their  most  eminent  men  to  the  Galileans  to 
l>eg  for  peace  in  behalf  of  the  nation  and  the  temple,  whose 
existence  was  threatened  by  the  Romans.  They  succeeded  ; 
the  Galileans  laid  down  their  arms.  It  appears  that  Cu- 
manus also,  perhaps  by  bribes,  was  persuaded  to  drop  the 
matter  at  that  point.  This  again  disi3leased  the  Samari- 
tans. They  went  to  Tyre,  where  they  met  Quadratus.  now 
President  of  Syria,  and  accused  Cumanus  of  bribery  and 
neglect  of  duty,  and  the  Hebrews  of  defying  the  authority 
of  Rome.  Quadratus  adjourned  the  case  until  he  came  to 
Samaria,  and  there,  Avithout  giving  a  hearing  to  the  Gali- 
leans, he  sentenced  their  captives  in  the  hands  of  Cumanus 
to  be  crucified.  Next  he  went  to  Lydda  and  gave  this  mat- 
ter a  second  hearing.  On  the  testimony  of  the  Samaritans 
against  Dortus,  and  four  more  principal  men  of  the  He- 
brows,  that  they  had  urged  their  people  to  rebellion  against 
Rome,  he  condemned  them  to  death;  sent  in  chains  to 
Rome,  Ananias,  the  highpriest   (14),  and  Annas,  the  cap- 

•   (14)    Ananias,  the  hicchpriest,  is  called  in  the  Mishnah  (Parah) 
"^IVOn  7X!33n,  who  also  sacrificed  a  red  heifer,  and  a  few  years  later 


296  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

tain  of  the  temple,  and  ordered  the  representatives  of  both 
the  Hebrews  and  Samaritans,  together  with  Cumanus  and 
Celer,  the  tribune,  to  appear  before  the  emperor  for  a  final 
settlement  of  their  differences.  Next  he  went  to  Jerusa- 
lem with  the  intention  of  continuing  his  bloody  w^ork.  But 
there  he  found  the  multitude  peaceably  assembled  to  wor- 
ship God  on  one  of  the  high  feasts. 

11.     The  Emperok's  Decision. 

There  was  an  abominable  regime  at  the  imperial  court, 
although  Messalina  had  Ixsen  publicly  executed.  Claudius 
had  married  a  second  wife,  Agrip])ina,  the  mother  of  Nero. 
This  woman  and  the  freedmen  ruled  the  en^)eror,  and  the}'' 
were  encmi(>s  of  the  Hebrews,  and  iriends  of  Cumanus  and 
the  Samaritans.  Still,  Agrippa  II.,  yet  in  Rome,  succeeded 
in  winning  the  good  will  of  Agrippina,  so  that  she  per- 
suaded the  emperor  to  give  a  hearing  to  the  contesting  par- 
ties. Claudius  decided  the  controversy  in  favor  of  the  He- 
brews. The  Samaritan  representatives  were  slain,  Cuma- 
nus was  banished,  and  Celer,  the  tribune,  was  sent  back  to- 
Jerusalem  to  be  dragged  through  the  city  and  then  to  be 
slain  (53  a.  c).  Still  the  priests  remained  captives  in 
Rome  for  several  years  after. 

12.     Felix,  Procurator  (53  a.  c). 

For  the  time  being,  the  Hebrews  were  relieved  and 
avenged,  but  it  was  only  for  a  short  time.  Claudius,  it  ap- 
pears, wished  to  be  just  to  the  Hebrews,  but  his  courtiers,, 
who  hated  and  feared  them,  always  prevented  him  from 
doing  the  right  thing.  Now,  certainly,  was  the  proper  time 
to  give  to  Palestine  its  legitimate  king,  Agrippa  II.,  who  was 
the  only  man  to  restore  order  and  law  in  that  country. 
But  instead  of  that,  he  sent  there  Felix,  the  brother  of 
Pallas,  and  gave  to  Agrippa  the  northern  kingdom.  How- 
ever, Claudius  was  no  moi'e  mistaken  in  the  man  he  sent  tO' 
Judea  than  was  the  highpriest,  Jonathan  (15),  the  immedi- 
ate successor  of  Ananius,  w^ho  recommended  Felix  for  the 
procuratorship,  although  Jonathan's  candor  and  patriotism 
were  subject  to  no  doubt.  The  procuratorship  of  Felix  was 
a  fresh  source  of  calamity  to  the  Hebrew. 

another  was  sacrificed  by  Ishniael  b.  Fal)i,  which  shows  how  gene- 
rally the  laws  of    Levitical  cleanness  must  have  been  observed,  if 
they  needed  the  ashes  of  three  red  heifers  in  less  than  two  decades- 
(15)     Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  viii.  5. 


military  despotism  and  its  effects.  297 

13.     The  Agrippa  Family  (54  a.  c). 

Claudius  also,  and  shortly  after  his  son,  Britannicus, 
like  Agrippa  I.,  were  cut  off  by  poison.  His  wife,  Agrip- 
pina,  in  order  to  secure  the  throne  of  the  Ceesars  to  her  son 
(Domitian),  the  horrible  Nero,  disposed  of  her  husband,  as 
afterward  her  son  disposed  of  her  and  his  own  wife.  Octavia, 
and  Nero  was  proclaimed  emperor  by  the  soldier}'  of  Rome 
(54  A.  c).  In  the  first  year  of  hisreign,  he  appointed  Aristo- 
bulus,  King  of  Chalcis,  Governor  of  Lesser  Armenia,  and 
added  to  the  kingdom  of  Agrippa  II.  portions  of  Galilee 
and  Perea,  including  Tiberias  and  Terichea  west  of  the 
lake,  Julias,  Gamala,  and  thirteen  other  places  east  of  the 
lake.  The  daughters  of  Agrippa  I.  also  occupied  high  posi- 
tions. Mariamne  deserted  her  first  husband  and  married 
Demetrius,  the  alabarch  of  the  Hebrews  of  Alexandria. 
Berenice,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  Herod  of  Cbalcis, 
in  order  to  escape  scandalous  reports,  married  Polemo, 
King  of  Cilicia,  who  had  embraced  Judaism,  but  she  after- 
ward left  him  and  he  left  her  religion.  Drusilla  was  mar- 
ried to  Azizus,  King  of  Emesa.  But  either  shortly  before 
or  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  she  Avas  persuaded  by 
Simon,  the  Cyrian  magician,  to  marry  Felix,  the  Procura- 
tor, who  was  a  Heatben,  and  this  was  considered  a  trans- 
gression of  the  laws  of  her  forefathers  (16). 

14.     Internal  Dissolution  of  the  Commonwealth. 

However  prosperous  the  aristocratic  families  and  the 
populous  cities  looked,  the  commonwealth  was  fatally  ix)is- 
oned  by  the  military  despotism  of  the  foreign  master. 
Ever  since  the  Romans  had  imposed  their  iron  scepter  upon 
Palestine,  the  Hebrew  democrats  protested  and  opposed  it : 
first,  as  patriots,  then  as  zealots ;  first,  as  guerrillas,  then  as 
robbers,  and  in  alliance  with  assassins.  Three  ger.erations 
of  patriots  had  been  slain  by  Roman  executioners,  viz. : 
Ezekias,  his  son  Judah,  of  Galilee,  and  his  sons,  James  and 
Simon,  and  this  is  the  index  to  the  fate  of  the  party.  Those 
men  fought  lion-like  on  the  battlefield  ;  when  defeated,  they 
retired  to  their  natural  fortresses  in  the  clefts  and  caverns 
of  the  mountains  or  inaccessible  retreats  in  the  wilderness^ 
and,  hard  pressed  there  for  sustenance,  they  were  forced  to 
live  on  booty  taken  from  foes  or  friends,  as  necessity  com- 
pelled them.  The  hatred  against  Rome  and  the  habits  of 
the  guerrilla  having  been  inherited  from  sire  to  son,  a  large 

(16)    Ibid.  XX.,  vii.  2. 


298  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

portion  of  the  fighting  i)()i)uhition,  })randed  as  robbers  and 
outhiu's,  defied  the  kiws  and  undermined  the  groundwork 
of  society.  The  profound  rehgious  feelings  of  tlie  Hebrews 
and  firm  trust  in  Providence,  tried  by  reverses,  scorned  by 
heathens,  and  offended  by  impious  tools  of  the  foreign  gov- 
ernment, deteriorated  into  fanciful  superstitions  and  blind 
itmaticism.  In  the  land  of  law  and  juridical  speculations 
there  rose  all  sorts  of  theopathic  and  theo-roinantic  necro- 
mancers, thaumaturgists,  prophets,  Messiahs,  saviors  and 
redeemers  of  all  kinds,  and  brought  anarchy  and  dissolu- 
tion into  the  religious  ieehngs  of  the  people.  The  rabbis 
of  Beth  Hillel  and  Beth  Shaminai  quibbled  and  quarreled 
over  unimportant  minor  topics.  The  whole  fabric  of  society 
was  in  a  state  of  dissolution.  As  the  corruption  and  de- 
generation grew  in  Rome,  despotism  and  cruelty,  with  their 
horrors  and  dissolving  efficacy,  progressed  in  Palestine. 
The  speedy  restoration  of  the  Hebrew  government  and  the 
national  laws  was  the  only  means  to  arrest  the  onward 
march  of  dissolution  ;  but  instead  of  that,  Felix  was  sent 
to  Judea  to  make  the  evil  incurably  worse. 

15.    Treachery,  Crucifixion  and  Assassination. 

Felix  began  his  career  (54  a.  c.  )  in  Palestine  with  a  cam- 
paign against  the  robbers,  captured  many  of  them  and  had 
them  crucified.  Like  all  other  despots,  he  believed  ideas 
could  be  crucified  or  crushed  by  a  reign  of  terror.  He 
promised  amnesty  to  the  Galilean  chief,  Eleazar  b.  Dana, 
who  capitulated,  but  Felix,  instead  of  keeping  his  promise, 
sent  him  in  chains  to  Rome.  Still,  during  the  first  years 
of  Nero,  the  country  was  quiet.  The  highpriest,  Jonathan, 
whose  influence  upon  the  people  and  the  Roman  authori- 
ties was  equally  potent,  kept  both  Felix  and  the  dissatisfied 
people  under  control.  Felix  grew  tired  of  that  man  of  stern 
righteousness  who  had  brought  him  from  Rome,  and 
Agrippa  certainly  would  not  remove  him  from  the  high 
priesthood.  As  was  then  fashionable  among  the  Roman 
grandees,  Felix  resorted  to  assassination.  By  the  wicked- 
ness of  a  citizen,  Doras,  a  number  of  robbers  were  hired, 
who  came  to  the  city  with  concealed  arms  and  assassinated 
the  highpriest.  No  arrests  were  made,  and  the  last  bonds 
of  society  were  rent  in  twain.  The  procurator  in  conspir- 
acy with  assassins  and  the  highpriest  dead — this  taught 
many  a  malicious  man  how  to  rid  himself  of  his  enemies 
in  the   Roman  style,  and  assassinations  soon  became  as 


MILITAIIY   DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  299 

common  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  as  duels  afterward  in 
Christian  communities. 

16.     Another  Highpriest   and   Other   Impostors 
(57  TO  60  A.  c). 

Agrippa  II.  now  appointed  as  highpriest  Ishmael  b.  Fabi 
(Elishah),  who  was  a  man  of  learning  and  patriotism. 
Still  the  assassination  of  a  highpriest  was  a  burning  sore 
in  the  heart  of  the  nation.  A  large  number  of  proi)hets, 
saviors,  redeemers,  Messiahs  and  impostors,  under  different 
titles,  rose  to  make  an  end  of  misery  by  miracles  and  fan- 
tastic enterprises.  Felix  knew  of  no  better  remedy  against 
the  evil  than  the  sword  and  the  cross.  He  had  all  those 
deluded  visionaries  slain  as  fast  as  they  could  be  caught, 
which  certainly  made  the  evil  worse.  One  of  those  impos- 
tors, an  alleged  prophet  from  Egypt,  succeeded  in  congre- 
.gating  a  multitude  on  JMount  Olives,  where  he  promised  to 
perform  miracles.  Felix  sent  out  his  soldiers,  who  slew 
four  hundred  and  captured  two  hundred  of  the  duped  mul- 
titude. The  prophet  luckily  escaped,  or  else  history  might 
have  had  another  crucified  savior.  All  those  impostors, 
however,  as  well  as  the  robbers,  were  patriots  ;  only  that 
the  latter  appealed  directly  to  the  sword,  and  the  former 
did  it  indirectly  through  the  religious  feelings.  Therefore, 
with  the  commotion  of  the  impostors,  the  robbers  also  re- 
newed their  activity ;  stirred  up  the  people  to  war  with  the 
Romans  and  inflicted  dire  punishment  on  those  who  pre- 
ferred peace  (17). 

17.      The  Sedition  of  the  Highpriests. 

The  murderous  executions  by  Felix  did  not  restore  re- 
spect for  law  and  order ;  it  could  only  foster  violence  and 
anarchy,  and  it  did  that  to  so  alarming  an  extent  that  the 
city  of  Jerusalem,  and  in  it  the  various  ex-highpriests,  were 
seized  by  the  destructive  current.  A  feud  of  the  various 
€X-highpriests,  wealthy  and  mighty  men,  was  a  novelty  in 
the  holy  city.  They  had  each  their  partisans,  armed  ser- 
vants and  ruffians  who,  although  not  as  bloodthirst}'  as 
the  knights  and  prelates  of  medieval  Christendom  or  the 
Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  insulted  and  attacked  one  another 
in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  was  no  government 
to  stop  them.     Some  of  those  parties  went  so  far  in  their 

(17)     Josephu!^'  Ant.  xx.,  viii.  6. 


800  MU.ITAUY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

lawlessness  as  to  send  tlieir  rulfians  into  the  country  ta 
take  the  titlies  out  of  the  hands  of  the  husbandmen,  so 
that  the  peaceable  priests  got  nothing  and  were  reduced  to 
starvation  (18). 

18.     Disfranchisement  in  C^sarea. 

Under  such  conditions  it  is  not  surprising  tluit  the 
Heathens  again  raised  their  heads  and  ventilated  their 
hatred  against  the  Hebrews.  This  time  it  was  in  Cicsarea^ 
where  the  Syrians  and  Hebrews  collided.  The  Hebrews 
claimed  something  in  preference  to  the  S3'rians,  Josephus 
does  not  tell  what,  and  this  started  a  feud  among  the  par- 
ties. The  ringleaders  on  both  sides  were  punished  and  the 
quarrel  stopped.  But  soon  after  the  wealthy  Hebrews 
started  the  same  quarrel,  which  led  to  fights.  Felix  em- 
braced the  favorable  opportunity  to  exercise  his  authority. 
He  sent  his  soldiers,  who  slew  some,  captured  others,  and 
plundered  the  houses  of  the  rich,  which  was  the  main  ob- 
ject in  quelling  disturbances.  Shortly  after  that,  Felix  was- 
recalled  to  Rome,  and  both  Hebrews  and  S3'rians  followed 
him  to  lay  their  grievances  before  the  emperor.  In  Rome,, 
however,  money  and  friends  could  accomplish  anything,, 
justice,  nothing.  Pallas  protected  his  brother,  Felix,  and  he- 
escaped  unpunished.  Money  purchased  Nero's  tutor,  Burr- 
hus,  who  obtained  a  decree  from  Nero  to  disfranchise  the 
Hebrews  of  Cajsarea,  the  city  built  by  Herod  and  beauti- 
fied by  Agrippa  with  the  money  of  the  Hebrews.  This, 
Avhen  a  few  years  after  it  became  known  in  Ca^sarea,  exas- 
perated the  Hebrew  citizens,  and  they  became  so  much 
more  seditious  till,  at  last,  they  became  the  very  first  cause 
of  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 

19.     Calamities  of  the  Babylonian  Hebrews. 

Worse  than  all  this  was  the  calamity  of  the  Babylonian 
Hebrews.  Asineus  and  Anileus,  though  feared  as  warriors, 
soon  lost  the  confidence  of  the  Hebrews,  because  they  led 
profligate  lives,  and  were  hated  by  the  Babylonians,  whom 
they  ojjpressed.  Anileus  had  married  a  Pagan  woman, 
against  which  the  Hebrews  loudly  remonstrated.  Fearing 
the  judgment  of  Asineus,  the  woman  poisoned  him,  and 
Anileus  governed  the  province  alone.     He  n)ade  marauding 

(18)  Josephus'  Ihkl.  xx.,  viii.  8,  and  Talmud  Pesachim,  57  a.  Ish- 
mael  b.  Fabi  himself  is  described  there  as  a  good  man,  but  his  family- 
was  involved  in  the  same  feuds  and  acts  of  violence  with  the  others. 


MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  301 

expeditions  into  the  adjoining  provinces  of  Mithridates, 
the  son-in-law  of  King  Artabanus,  who  came  with  an  army 
to  chastise  him.  This  army  was  defeated  and  Mithridates 
captured.  He  was  spared  and  sent  back  to  the  king;  but 
his  wife,  ashamed  of  his  defeat,  pressed  him  hard  to  renew 
the  fight,  and  he  did  so.  This  time  Mithridates  was  victo- 
rious, and  Anileus  retreated  to  Nehardea.  A  band  of  ma- 
rauders, gathered  about  him,  did  great  damage  to  the  Bab_y- 
lonians,  until  finally,  Anileus  and  his  men  fell  into  their 
hands  and  were  slain.  Now  the  Babylonians  turned  their 
arms  against  the  Hebrews  in  the  country,  who  were  obliged 
to  seek  protection  in  Seleucia.  They  lived  there  in  peace 
for  five  years,  but  then,  in  the  sixth  year,  the  Greeks  and 
Syrians  of  the  city  combined  against  "them  and  slew  about 
fifty  thousand  of  them ;  those  who  escaped  sought  shelter 
in  the  city  of  Ctesiphon,  but  not  being  suffieientl.y  pro- 
tected there  they  went  to  the  cities  of  Nisibis  and  Nehar- 
dea. So  it  appears  that  the  Hebrews  of  all  Mesopotamia 
were  driven  to  those  two  large,  strong  cities.  The  chief 
authority  of  Nisibis  was  the  Tana,  R.  Judah  b.  Bethyra, 
who  resided  there  till  he  died,  some  j^ears  after  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  (19). 

20.     Administration  of  Festus  (61  a.  c). 

Porcius  Festus  was  sent  to  Judea  as  the  successor  of 
Felix.  He  found  the  country  exposed  to  bands  of  guer- 
rillas and  robbers,  and  the  city  infested  with  assassins. 
Especially  terrible  were  the  sicarians,  men  armed  with 
short,  bent  swords,  somewhat  like  sickles,  who  did  terrible 
execution.  The  patriotic  excitement  of  those  zealots  ran 
very  high.  Whoever  was  loyal  to  the  Romans  was  consid- 
ered an  enemy  and  treated  accordingly.  Villages  were 
burnt  and  plundered,  men  were  driven  from  their  homes 
and  their  land  was  sold  or  otherwise  disposed  of.  Another 
pretending  savior  was  at  work,  and  promised  freedom  and 
deliverance  to  his  followers  (20),  and  the  procurator,  like 
his  predecessors,  could  only  wield  his  authority  by  military 
executioners,  by  slaughter  and  confiscation,  which  could  but 
increase  the  evil.  Nothing  would  convince  the  Roman 
authorities  that  tlie  Hebrews  could  be  governed  by  their 
own  laws  and  institutions  alone,  and  the  military  despot- 


(19)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xviii.,  ix ;    Talmud  Pesachim  3  and  109 ; 
Sanhedrin  32 ;  John  b.  Bag-Bag  was  his  cotemporary  (Kiddushin  10). 

(20)  Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  viii.  10. 


302  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

ism  displacing  them    gradually  and   surely,  produced  the 
entire  demoralization  and  dissolution  of  society. 

21.     The  Quarrel  over  Agrippa's  Dining  Room. 

Agrippa  II.,  in  possession  of  the  royal  palaces  in  Jeru- 
salem, spent  much  of  his  time  there,  although  he  had  two 
capitals,  viz. :  Tiberias  and  Csesarea  Philippi.  The  old  As- 
monean  palace  was  so  situated  on  the  Temple  Mount  that 
it  afforded  a  prospect  of  the  city  and  the  temple.  Agrippa 
built  there  a  dining-room,  from  which  he  could  look  into  the 
inner  court  of  the  temple.  This  was  considered  unlawful^ 
and  the  rulers  of  the  temple  built  an  addition  upon  the 
western  wall  of  the  inner  court  to  intercept  the  prospect 
from  that  dining-room,  and  of  the  western  cloisters  of  the 
outer  court,  where  the  Romans  kei)t  guards  during  the  fes- 
tivals. Agrippa  was  displeased,  and  Festus  demanded  of 
those  rulers  to  take  down  the  wall.  A  de])utation  was  sent 
to  Rome  consisting  of  twelve  men,  headed  b}'  the  highpriest, 
Ishmael  b.  Fabi,  and  Helkias,  the  treasurer  of  the  temple. 
Poppea,  the  wife  of  Nero,  who,  notwithstanding  her  wicked- 
ness, "  was  a  religious  woman,"  embraced  the  cause  of  the 
embassadors,  and  Nero  decided  in  favor  cf  the  new  wall. 
Ten  of  the  embassadors  were  sent  back  to  Jerusalein ;  Ish- 
mael and  Helkias  were  held  as  hostages  by  Poppea.  The 
particular  remark  of  Josephus,  that  Poppea  was  a  religious 
woman,  conveys  the  information  that,  like  many  more  Ro- 
man women  of  high  rank,  she  admired  Judaism.  However^ 
the  personal  beauty  of  that  highpriest  is  highly  lauded  in 
the  Hebrew  legend  of  the  Ten  Martyrs. 

22.     Ishmael's  Doctrine  of  Atonement. 

This  Ishmael  b.  Fabi  or  Elisha,  who  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  Rabbi  Ishmael  b.  Elisha,  of  the  second  century 
A.  c,  taught  in  Rome  the  doctrine  of  atonement  without 
the  medium  of  sacrifice,  priesthood,  redeemer,  mediator,  or 
ransom  of  any  kind,  contrary  not  only  to  the  teachings  of 
Paul,  but  also  to  the  theories  then  generally  accepted. 
Based  upon  Scriptural  passages,  he  advanced  four  degrees 
of  atonement,  alwa^^s  connected  with  sincere  repentance  of 
misdeeds.  He  maintained  (21)  that  there  were  four  degrees 
of  sin.  If  one  neglects  the  performance  of  a  duty  com- 
manded in  the  Law,  and  then  sincerely  repents  his  negli- 

(21)    Mechilta,  Bachodesh  vii.,  and  parallel  passages  in  bothTal- 
muds. 


MILITARY   DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS.  303 

gence,  his  sin  is  forgiven.  If  one  violates  a  prohibitory 
law  of  Scriptures,  and  then  sincerely  repents,  it  will  ward 
off  the  punishment,  and  the  Day  of  Atonement  will  bring 
him  remission  of  sins.  If  one  presumptuously  transgresses 
a  law  connected  with  the  Scriptural  threat  of  death  or  "  to 
be  cut  off,"  and  then  sincerely  repents  his  misdeed,  repent- 
ance and  the  Day  of  Atonement  will  ward  off  the  punish- 
ment, but  afflictions  only  will  bring  him  remission  of  sins. 
If  one  profanes  the  name  of  Heaven  and  then  sincerely  re- 
pents this  most  grievous  sin  ;  repentance,  Day  of  Atonement, 
and  afflictions  Avill  only  ward  off  the  punishment,  and  only 
his  death  in  repentance  can  bring  him  atonement.  This 
doctrine  of  atonement,  after  the  destruction  of  the  altar 
and  tlie  spread  of  Christianity,  became  so  important  to  the 
teachers  that  tlie  principal  rnbbi  of  Rome,  Matthia  b.  Ha- 
rash,  went  all  the  Avay  to  Palestine  (to  Lydda)  in  order  to 
ascertain  of  the  then  Associate  Nassi,  R.  Eleazar  b.  Aza- 
rinh,  wlicthcr  this  doctrine  had  been  accepted,  and  he  was 
told  it  was  (22).  The  pretensions  of  this  highpriest,  made 
by  or  for  him,  are  the  same  as  those  made  by  or  for  Paul. 
The  latter  maintained  that  God  revealed  to  him  "  His 
Son ;"  and  Ishmael  conversed  with  "  Suriel,  the  Prince  of 
the  Countenance"  (23),  which  is  the  same  idea.  Paul  al- 
leged that  he  Avas  caught  up  to  the  third  Heaven,  or  para- 
dise, and  there  heard  unspeakable  words  (24);  Ishmael  saw 
Akathriel  Jah  Jeiiovah  Zebaotii,  "  the  crown  and  full 
glory  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  upon  a  high  and  exalted  throne 
in  the  sanctum,  sanctorum^  and  the  vision  encouraged  him 
to  pray.  He  pra;.  ed  that  God's  mercy  for  His  children 
might  predominate  over  all  His  other  attributes,  and  the 
vision  nodded  assent,  viz. :  That  this  is  the  nature  of  the 
Deity,  and  such  should  be  man's  prayer  (25).  Strange  is 
the  remarkable  coincidence  that  this  highpriest,  being  a 
hostage,  was  slain  in  Rome  (2G)  at  the  outbreak  of  the  re- 
bellion in  Palestine,  and  was  counted  second  among  the 
"  Ten  Martyrs  "  (27),  the  one  who  went  up  to  Heaven  alive 


(22)     ]\Lumon ides'  Mishnaix  Thorah,  Teshubah  i.  4. 
(_';])     Ji.rachoth  51  a. 

(24)  II.  Corinthians  xii.  1,  etc. 

(25)  Jicradi  t'll  n. 

(26)  ^DTlD  n:X2  7S'D"*"'  "l  b'y  "173;3TP  (Chulin  123  n),  is  the  correct 
reading  according;  to  Arucli,  "  Is'.niiacl's  skull  lays  in  Rome."  Tlie 
Kouians  used  skulls  for  ])urpo.sed  of  necromancy,  and  many  weru 
carried  along  by  tlie  legions  on  the  marcli. 

(27)  The  lirst  is  the  Nassi,  .Simon  b.  Gamliel,  and  Simon  and  Peter 
are  airain  synonymous,  and  Peter  ij  tlie  second  martyr  in  Rome  of 
the  Christian  legend  also. 


304  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS. 

to  hear  the  decree  of  the  Ahnighty ;  and  Paul,  according  to 
post-Evangehcal  legends,  also  died  a  martyr  in  Rome.  It 
is  difficult  to  say  which  is  the  original  and  which  the  copy. 
Sure  it  is  that  those  two  men  preached  the  opposite  forms 
of  the  doctrines  of  divine  mercy,  atonement  and  redemp- 
tion, as  held  since  their  days  in  Christianity  and  Judaism. 

28.     Death  of  James  and  IIis  Companions. 

While  the  embassadors  noticed  above  were  in  Rome, 
Festus,  the  Procurator,  died,  and  Nero  appointed  Albinus 
as  his  successor.  Three  months  elapsed  between  the  death 
of  Festus  and  the  arrival  of  Albinus  in  Palestine,  during 
which  time  the  highpriest  was  Governor  of  Judea.  Agrippa 
II.,  in  consequence  of  the  opposition  offered  to  him  by  the 
Pharisean  authorities  of  the  temple,  a[)i)ointed  first  the 
Boethite,  Joseph  Cabi,  son  of  Simon  Boethus,  and  after  a 
few  days,  the  Sadducean  highpriest,  Ananus,  son  of  Ananus. 
This  Ananus,  himself  highpriest,  had  five  sons  successively 
in  that  responsible  office.  This  new  highpriest,  Ananus, 
was  very  insolent,  of  a  bold  temper,  and,  like  all  other  Sad- 
ducees,  "  very  rigid  in  judging  offenders  above  all  the  rest 
of  the  Jews  "  (28).  When  Festus  was  dead  and  before  Al- 
binus arrived,  Ananus  convoked  a  criminal  court  or  Minor 
Sanhedrin  at  Lydda  (29),  accused  James,  the  brother  of 
Jesus,  and  some  of  his  companions,  of  "  leading  astray  to 
idolatry  "  (Deut.  xiii.  7),  to  which  effect  the  doctrines  of 
Paul  were  understood.  The  accusation,  it  appears  from  the 
Talmud,  was  produced  by  spies  in  an  insidious  manner. 
James  and  his  companions  were  found  guilty,  condemned 
and  put  to  death.  This  execution  roused  the  indignation 
of  the  law-abiding  citizens.  Hitherto  the  Roman  procura- 
tors only  had  slaughtered  so-called  impostors,  to  the  cha- 
grin of  the  Hebrews  ;  but  now  a  highpriest  and  a  quasi 
Sanhedrin  committing  the  same  crime,  the  laws  of  the  land 
were  outraged.  They  sent  a  deputation  to  Agrippa  II.  de- 
manding him  to  stop  the  highpriest  in  his  work  of  blood- 
shed, and  when  Albinus  came  into  the  country,  prevailed 
with  him  to  threaten  punishment  to  Ananus  for  his  unlaw- 
ful convocation  of  a  Sanhedrin,  and  Agrippa  was  obliged  to 
remove  Ananus  from  his  office  (30)  and  appoint  as  his 
successor  Jesus,  son  of  Damneus. 

(28)    Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  ix.  1. 

(20)  Yermhalmi  Ykbamotu  xvi.  and  Sanhedrin  vii.  16,  and  paral- 
lel passages. 

(;>0)  This  is  the  fact  which  misled  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  to  report  James  slain  by  Agrippa  I. 


military  despotism  and  its  effects.  305 

24.    Administration  op  Albinus  (62  and  63  a.  c). 

Albinus  began  his  administration,  like  his  predecessors, 
with  a  chase  after  the  so-called  robbers  and  sicarians,  whose 
number  and  violence  had  not  decreased.  He  slaughtered 
many  and  imprisoned  many  more,  without  changing  the 
statu  quo.  Their  number  increased  as  the  resolution  of 
resistance  against  Rome  grew  in  the  popular  mind.  Those 
sicarii  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation.  The 
ex-highpriest,  Ananus,  one  of  those  who  robbed  no  less 
than  the  robbers  did,  bribed  both  the  procurator  and  the 
highpriest,  and  was  second  in  power  to  none  in  Jerusalem. 
His  son,  Eleazar,  was  the  principal  scribe  of  the  temple. 
The  sicarii  knew  this,  and  on  the  evening  before  the  feast, 
captured  him  in  the  heart  of  the  cit}^,  took  him  to  one  of 
their  retreats,  and  sent  word  to  Ananus  that  they  would 
exchange  Eleazar  for  ten  of  their  imprisoned  men.  Ananus 
urged  Albinus  to  accept  the  proposal,  and  Eleazar  was  ex- 
changed. The  consequences  were  that  every  now  and  then 
servants  and  friends  of  Ananus,  or  other  men  of  influence, 
were  captured  by  the  sicarii  to  release  their  prisoners  by 
exchange,  till  the  city  and  the  country  alike  Avere  terrorized 
by  them.  Money  purchased  anything  of  Albinus  ;  so  the 
chief  priests  bribed  him  to  allow  them  to  go  on  with  their 
schemes  of  violence  and  robbery  ;  and  the  heads  of  robber 
bands  paid  their  shares  to  go  on  with  their  business 
undisturbed.  Heavy  taxes  were  imposed  on  the  country 
and  rigorously  collected.  Wealthy  men  were  robbed 
unless  they  purchased  immunity  of  this  procurator.  So 
while  on  the  one  side  all  bonds  of  society  were  weakened, 
the  number  of  the  dissatisfied  increased  daily,  and  a 
tremendous  rebellion  was  rapidly  preparing.  Albinus  en- 
riched himself  and  dragged  the  countr}^  to  the  abyss  of  de- 
struction. Before  he  left  his  post  he  took  out  of  the  prisons 
all  his  victims,  killed  those  who  could  not  pay  and  set  those 
free  who  ransomed  their  lives,  irrespective  of  the  crimes 
committed. 

25.     Unpopularity  of  Agrippa  II. 

No  less  unfortunate,  at  that  particular  time,  was  the 
groAving  unpopularity  of  Agrippa  11.  He  squandered  in 
foreign  cities  his  people's  money  and  his  country's  treasures 
of  art.  He,  like  his  predecessors,  was  plagued  with  the 
building  mania.  He  enlarged  Ca?sarea  Pliilippi,  and  called 
it  Neronias  in  honor  of  Nero.  He  built  a  theater  in  Bery- 
tus  and  amused  the  people  there  with  shows,  at  heavy  ex- 


306  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

pense,  distributed  corn  and  oil  in  foreign  towns,  and  trans- 
ferred thitlier  the  ornaments  which  belonged  to  his  country. 
Since  his  quarrel  with  Ishmael  b.  Fabi  about  the  dining-room, 
he  had  appointed  three  unworthy  highpriests,  and  now  bribed 
by  a  woman,  Martha,  a  daughter  of  Boethus,  he  made  her 
husband,  Joshua  (Jesus)  b.  Gamala,  liighpriest.  He  was  a 
worthy  man,  yet  the  other  chief  priests  were  opposed  ta 
him.  This  led  to  brawls  and  riots  in  the  city,  of  which  also 
kinsmen  of  Agrippa  took  advantage.  A  state  of  anarchy 
prevailed  among  the  men  in  power;  the  aristocracy  had 
become  riotous.  Still  Joshua  b.  Gamala  sustained  himself 
in  the  highpriestship  for  some  time.  Agrippa  added  to  all 
this  an  innovation  which  was  unpopular  with  the  priests 
and  conservative  laymen.  With  the  aid  of  a  special  San- 
hedrin,  he  bestowed  upon  the  Levites,  who  were  the  singers 
in  the  temple,  the  right  to  wear  the  same  white  linen  gar- 
ments that  the  priests  wore.  Nothing  was  more  offensive 
to  the  Hebrews  than  innovations  in  the  temple.  It  appears, 
however,  that  a  labor  question  was  the  principal  cause  of 
Agrippa's  unpopularity.  Eighteen  thousand  workmen 
had  been  engaged  to  finish  the  buildings  about  the  temple, 
and  their  work  was  completed  this  year  (64  a.  c).  It  was 
the  desire  of  the  workmen's  friends  to  take  down  and  re- 
build the  immense  but  very  old  structure  called  the  porch 
of  Solomon,  with  its  cloisters,  built  of  white,  square  stones, 
twent3^-one  cubits  square,  and  resting  upon  solid  masonry 
work  clear  down  to  the  valley.  The  main  object  was  to 
give  employment  to  those  eighteen  thousand  artisans ;  to 
which  Agrippa  refused  to  give  his  consent.  The  artisans 
were  partly  engaged  in  paving  the  city  witli  white  stone ; 
but  this  gave  them  scanty  employment,  and  the  dissatis- 
faction ^\as  general  among  them.  Agrippa  also  removed 
the  liighpriest,  most  likely  on  account  of  his  siding  with 
the  laborers.,  and  appointed  as  his  successor,  Matthias,  son 
of  Theophilus,  who  was  the  fourth  in  two  years. 

26.      Paul  of  Tarsus. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  growing  demoralization 
and  despotism  among  the  Heathens  and  the  rapid  advance 
of  political  dissolution  among  the  Hebrews,  Paul  laid  the 
foundation  to  Gentile  Christianity,  i.  e.,  he  remodeled  the 
Messiahism  of  the  Apostles,  afterward  called  Jewisli  Chris- 
tianity, to  be  made  acceptable  first  to  foreign  Hebrews,  and 
then  also  to  the  Gentiles,  whose  Paganism  had  been  de- 
molished by  advancing  Judaism.     Paul  traveled  and  taught 


MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  307 

"under  the  fictitious  name  of  "  The  Little  Man."  His  proper 
name  has  not  reached  posterity.  The  author  of  "  The 
Acts,"  by  changing  P  into  S,  gave  him  the  name  of  SauL 
The  rabbis  called  him  Acher,  "  another,"  or  properly  "  an 
anonymous  man  "  (31)  or  Elisha  b.  Abujah,  which  is  also 
fictitious  and  expressive  of  Paul's  theology  (32).  He  was 
born  in  Jerusalem  (28  or  29  a.  c.  ?),  of  wealthy  parents  of 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin  (Romans  xi.  1),  who  afterward  emi- 
grated to  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia,  where  his  father  became  a  Ro- 
man citizen  (33).  After  he  had  received  his  first  education, 
also  in  Greek,  he  came  to  Jerusalem  to  sit  at  the  feet  of 
Gamliel,  as  he  says,  which  means  to  study  the  national 
literature  and  traditions.  In  the  acadeni}'  at  Jerusalem  he 
was  noted  as  paying  more  attention  to  Greek  poetry  and  in- 
fidel books  than  to  his  studies  (34) ;  and  disputing  the 
supernaturalism  of  Gamliel  in  regard  to  the  future  or  post- 
JVIessianic  state  of  the  world  (35).  Like  many  other 
young  men  of  his  days,  he  studied  little,  believed  less,  and 
was  inclined  to  innovations.  In  consequence  of  his  aver- 
sion to  supernaturalism  he  was  opposed  also  to  the  Mes- 
siahism  of  the  Apostles,  and  says  he  persecuted  them  and 
their  disciples  ;  although  he  overdid  his  own  wickedness 
before  the  Gentiles  in  order  to  prove  the  magnitude  of  his 
conversion.  This  gave  rise  to  the  overwrought  stories  in 
the  Acts.  It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Gos- 
pels and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  were  written  from  differ- 
ent traditions  before  different  authors,  but  chiefly  from  the 
epistles  and  traveling  notes  of  Paul ;  and  many  an  acci- 
dental expression  of  his  has  been  modeled  by  those  writers 
into  an  incident  of  his  life  or  in  the  life  of  Jesus  and  his 
disciples  (36), 

27.     Turning  Point  in  Paul's  Life. 

The  transition   from  the  orthodox  Pharisean  school  to 
Gentile  Christianity  was  started  by  the  wrongs  and  woes 


(31)  The  identity  of  Paul  and  Acher  has  been  established  in  our 
book,  "The  Origin  of , Christianity,"  p.  311,  etc. 

(32)  ri'-nx  p  y:i'''-^S  signifies    "The   godly   savior,   son   of    the 
Father- God." 

(33)  Yeuushalmi  Hagigah  ii.  1  ;    Eabbah  to  Euth  v.;    Yalkup 
Shimoni  974. 

(34)  Hagigah  15  h:    H-'HC  nyt^a   ®    *    *     n'OISD  pDQ  \^h   "•J"!''  "lOr 

ip^no  |n:;n3 1'yia  ncD  nain  L^mon  nnrj  nm:; 

(35)  T'O^nn  imx  vhv  ^^^  Sabbath  30  b,  and  elsewhere. 

(36)  See  Die  Entstehung  der  vler  Evangelien  und  der  Christus  des 
Apostels  Paulus,  BerUn,  1876. 


308  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS. 

of  that  age.  He  saw  tlie  innocent  Steplien  stoned,  says 
the  author  of  the  Acts ;  he  saw  the  tongue  of  the  shiiii 
Judah  Nachtum  dragged  about  by  dogs,  narrates  the  Baby- 
lonian Tabnud ;  he  saw  a  man  on  the  phiin  of  Genesaretli 
fulfill  both  commandments,  to  which  Scriptures  add  the 
promise  of  long  life,  fall  down  from  the  tree  and  meet  with 
instant  death,  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  reports,  and  so  he 
"was  forced  to  the  conclusion,  ''  Tliere  is  no  justice  and  there 
is  no  judge  "  (pi  n'^h  TT  n^^)-  All  those  anecdotes  convey 
the  same  idea :  He  saw  the  wrongs  and  woes  of  his  genera- 
tion and  his  people,  and  no  retribution,  no  redress  from  on 
high,  and,  like  many  others  of  his  age,  he  became  a  skeptic. 
Minds  like  Paul's  can  not  remain  long  in  that  painful  state. 
They  seek  an  outlet  from  tlie  labyrinth.  Wlien  they  have 
knocked  in  vain  on  every  portal  of  eternity  which  the 
philosophy  and  theology  of  the  age  point  out,  and  none  is 
opened,  no  answer  is  given  to  the  momentous  question; 
Why  is  it?  Wherefore  is  it  so?  then,  like  King  Saul,  un- 
der similar  circumstances,  many  resort  to  superstition.  So 
did  some  of  the  best  men  under  the  pressure  of  public 
calamities,  resort  to  Gnosticism,  the  belief  that  knowledge 
can  be  obtained  from  high  Heaven  by  other  than  natural 
means,  by  ecstatic  meditation,  the  Paraclette  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  BatJi-hol;  or  by  fasting,  praying  and  tarrying 
on  a  burial  ground,  in  order  to  contract  a  prophes3'ing  evil 
spirit;  or  by  transporting  oneself  into  Paradise  in  order  to 
learn  there  the  mysteries  of  existence.  This  latter  state  of 
ecstasy  was  reached  by  seclusion  and  meditation,  bathing, 
fasting  and  praying,  till  the  nerves  were  unstrung;  and 
then  by  sitting  flat  on  the  ground  with  the  spine  curved  and 
head  bowed  down  between  the  knees,  which  excited  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood  to  madness ;  then  the  gnostic  saw 
opened  before  him  the  small  and  the  large  palaces  of 
Heaven,  and  at  last  imagined  himself  transported  into 
Heaven  or  Paradise,  where  he  saw  the  angels  or  even  tlie 
throne  of  glory,  and  heard  answers  to  his  questions  ;  to  re- 
turn then  to  the  earth  instructed  in  tlie  mysteries  of 
Heaven  and  gifted  with  superior  wisdom.  The  Talmud 
mentions  only  four  who  thus  went  to  Paradise,  and  one  of 
them  was  Paul,  who  tells  the  same  story  of  himself  (37), 
viz. :  that  he  was  cauglit  up  to  PToaven  ''  in  the  bod}-  or  out 
•of  the  body,"  and  there  in  Paradise,  he  heard  unspeakable 


(37)  DTiE)!?  1D;z;3  riS?2"iN:  HAOicAn,  II.  Perek,  in  both  Talmuds; 
Habrati  to  C:inticles ;  compare  to  H.  Corinthians  xii.  i.,  and  Haya  the 
Gaon  to  the  tirst  patisage. 


MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS.  309 

words.  So,  through  skepticism  and  gnosticism,  Paul  arrived 
at  his  Christianity.  He  calls  that  "  God  had  revealed  his 
Son  to  him,"  of  which  the  author  of  The  Acts  made  a 
story,  of  how  Jesus  appeared  to  Paul  on  his  way  to  Damas- 
cus, of  which  Paul  himself  never  speaks.  He  went  through 
these  visions  in  Arabia,  says  Paul,  as  then  the  land  east  of 
Perea,  full  of  wild  and  secluded  spots,  was  called. 

28.     The  End  and  the  Messiah. 

In  that  state  of  mind,  Paul  invented  nothing  new ;  he  com- 
bined and  remodeled  existing  schemes  and  paradoxes  to  a 
new  fabric  of  salvation.  The  miseries  and  woes  of  the  age  ap- 
peared to  him  incurable  under  the  prevailing  circumstances, 
hence  the  end  of  that  cycle  of  the  earth  and  its  inhabit- 
ants must  be  at  hand  and  might  come  to  pass  any  day 
(38).  The  end  is  nigh,  was  his  keynote.  Before  the  end 
and  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  Messiah  must  come. 
This  was  believed  by  those  who  believed  in  the  coming  of 
a  personal  Messiah,  although  the  two  great  epochs  of  re- 
demption were  kept  far  apart  by  some.  Paul,  believing  the 
end  and  the  resurrection  nigh,  convinced  himself  that  the 
Messiah  must  have  come.  Among  all  the  pretenders  to 
that  dignity  Avho  had  loomed  up  in  those  days,  he  consid- 
ered Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  be  the  most  eminent,  and  so  he 
became  Paul's  Messiah,  as  he  was  Peter's  and  the  other 
Apostles',  althougli  from  entirely  different  motives.  Why 
was  the  Messiah  slain? 

29.     The  Corporeal  Resurrection  of  Jesus. 

Why  was  the  Messiah  slain?  That  he  resurrect  again 
and  prove  thereby  that  he  actually  was  the  Messiah,  that 
the  dead  resurrect,  that  the  universal  resurrection  is  nigh, 
and  Jesus  has  arisen  to  forewarn  all  of  the  speedy  approach 
thereof.  With  Paul  the  corporeal  resurrection  of  Jesus  has 
its  beginning  (Corinthians  xv.  4  to  9),  and  on  his  authority 
it  was  accepted  in  the  Gospels.  Tlie  original  Apostles 
taught  merely  a  spiritual  and  personal  conservation  of 
Jesus,  and  not  his  resurrection  in  the  body  (39).     Tlie  idea 


(38)  I.  Corinthians  1.  7,  S ;  iv.  5 ;  xv.  19  to  51 ;  x.  11 ;  Titus  ii.  13  ; 
Philippians  i.  6;  iii.  20;  Ephesiansi.  5  to  11 ;  II.  Timothy  iv.  8;  com- 
pare to  PiRKAi  R.  Eliezer,  chapter  51,  where  Rabban  Gamliel  is 
named  as  the  originator  of  that  doctrine  ;  also  Mechilta  to  y^S  '2K^ 
Vnnn  and  rr'pX  'm  NJri  Saxhedrin  92  a  and  97  a,  bottom  of  the 
page,  and  R'  A'  B'  D',  in  Teshubnh  viii.  8. 
(39)    T  lii  is  evident  from  "Revelations"  and  all  epistles  besides 


310  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS. 

of  vicarious  atonement,  that  the  blood  of  Jcsiis  was  shed  to 
atone  for  the  sins  of  the  behevers,  never  ripened  in  Paul's 
mind,  although  some  of  his  expressions  led  to  that  doc- 
trine, and  to  statements  of  that  kind  in  the  Gospels.  The 
idea  of  human  sacrifice  was  anti-Jewish  and  anti-Scrip- 
tural (40).  Those  who  have  died  with  the  Messiah,  figura- 
tively, and  are  dead  to  sin,  resurrect  with  him  to  eternal 
life,  and  thus  escape  death  in  the  approaching  catastroplic, 
was  Paul's  doctrine.  All  who  believe  his  doctrines,  and 
also  their  deceased  relatives,  will,  at  the  approaching  end, 
either  resurrect  in  incorruptible  bodies  or,  if  still  living  on 
earth,  their  bodies  will  be  so  changed.  Paul  certainl}'  did 
not  preach  his  resurrection  doctrine  to  Jews,  who  were  not 
used  to  so  unnatural  a  belief.  He  preached  it  to  Pagans, 
who  knew  of  several  such  resurrections  in  their  mythologies. 

30.     The  Metathron — Son  of  God. 

In  the  mind  of  Puul,  another  mystic  doctrine  of  Gnosti- 
cism was  blended  with  the  Messialiism  of  the  Apostles ; 
and  this  was  the  Metathron  or  Syndelphos  speculation. 
The  highest  of  all  angels,  who  is  the  prince  of  this  world 
and  prince  of  the  countenance,  stands  or  sits  before  God, 
whose  name  is  also  in  that  angel,  receives  the  prayers  of 
man  shaped  into  crowns,  to  place  them  on  the  head  of  the 
Almighty,  and  is  permitted  to  enter  the  merits  of  Israel  in 
the  book  of  memorial ;  this  highest  angel,  whose  name  is 
Metathron,  Syndelphos,  Suriel  or  otherwise,  was  a  man 
on  earth,  viz.,  Enoch  or  Elijah,  and  was  transported  to 
Heaven.  Elijah-Metathron's  appearance  on  earth,  they 
maintained,  was  promised  to  precede  the  great  and  terrible 
day  of  judgment;  and  Paul  added,  this  Metathron  has 
appeared  on  earth  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  be- 
cause the  great  and  terrible  day  of  judgment  is  nigh ;  and 
he  has  returned  to  Heaven  to  be  the  prince  of  the  world 
and  the  mediator  for  his  believers  ;  to  conduct  the  catas- 
trophe on  the  last  day  of  judgment.  But  after  that  bis 
office  ends  and  his  dominion  ceases,  and  God  will  be  again 
all  in  all.  "While  the  Gnostic  Hebrews  called  tliat  Meta- 
thron  Syndelphos,  God's    confrere,   or    Jeshajahii,  God's 

Paul's,  in  none  of  which  is  the  bodilj'^  resurrection  of  Jesus  men- 
tioned; and  especially  from  II.  Peter  i.  16.  Peter  argues  against  un- 
helievers  and  testifies  in  favor  of  the  Messiah,  but  never  mentions 
his  resurrection,  which  he  must  have  done,  as  being  his  best  point, 
had  he  believed  in  it. 

(40)     Genesis  xxii.;  Exodus  xxxii.  32,  33. 


MILITARY   DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS.  311 

savior,  or  Suriel,  God's  first  one,  Paul,  to  suit  Gentile  ears, 
called  him  Son  of  God,  with  all  the  above  epithets.  The 
theories  were  precisely  the  same.  Paul's  Christolog}'  and 
the  Hebrew  Kabbalah  originated  from  the  same  source 
(41).  Paul,  like  every  other  Hebrew,  believed  in  one  God, 
and  his  "  Son  of  God  "  was  a  superior  angel,  commissioned 
to  announce,  b}^  his  death  and  resurrection,  the  speedy  ap- 
proach of  the  end  of  this  world,  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  the  day  of  judgment ;  to  save  those  who  believe 
from  the  coming  destruction,  by  their  faith  and  his  inter- 
cession ;  and  to  conduct  the  last  judgment  da}^  b}'  the 
power  vested  in  him  by  God's  appointment  (42).  It  can 
not  be  ascertained  from  Paul's  Epistles  or  the  Acts,  how 
long  it  took  him  to  build  up  this  departure  from  orthodox 
Judaism,  or  at  which  particular  time  it  was  finished.  It 
certainly  ripened  in  him  gradually,  while  at  work  preach- 
ing Gentile  Christianity. 

31.     Paul  Evangelizing  the  Gentiles. 

With  these  and  similar  doctrines,  Paul  went  forth  to 
preach  Jesus  crucified.  He  had  no  proofs,  no  evidence  to 
advance  in  support  of  his  doctrines  and  allegations.  He 
had  learned  them  of  no  one,  not  even  of  the  Apostles, 
nor  was  he  appointed  by  anybody  to  be  an  Apostle ; 
it  was  all  revelation,  as  he  called  it,  addressed  simply 
and  exclusively  to  uninquiring  faith,  an  absurdity  to 
the  Greeks,  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Hebrews,  as 
he  characterized  it.  AMiere  he  referred  to  Scriptures  in 
support  of  his  teachings,  it  was  done  in  a  novel  manner, 
and  without  foundation  in  rational  exegese.  He  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  reason,  logic  or  philosophy,  nothing  even 
with  common  sense  ;  he  told  a  story  and  preached  a  doc- 
trine to  those  who  believed  it,  and  no  opportunity  was  of- 
fered them  to  ascertain  whether  Paul  believed  his  own 
story.  He  commenced  preaching  in  Damascus  and  failed 
utterly  (II.  Corinth,  xi.  32),  although  most  of  the  women  of 

(41)  Hagigah  1-5  a,    *   *   "yrc^h  ^*n1E^n  r\'h  xm'Tixt  ]nt2t:5ro  xrn 

]n  nvitj'"!  -nK'  Wn  ayzV-     Sanhednn  38  h,  read   for  >pnV  Christian, 
and  for  Metathron,  Jesus. 

(42)  Actsxvii.  22  to  29;  Romans  i.  9;  ii.  16;  vi.  10;  viii.  11;  I. 
Corinthians  v.  15  to  17 ;  iii.  23 ;  xi.  3 ;  xv.  21  to  28 ;  Origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, p.  332,  etc.;  compare  to  Pirke  R.  Eliezer  III.  and  Pesachi.m 
54  c,  about  the  name  of  tlie  Messiah  preceding  the  world's  creation  ; 
and  Pirke  R  Eliezer  xi.;  also  Yalkut  to  I.  Kings,  8ec.  211,  "  the 
ninth  king  is  the  Messiah  ;"  then,  as  the  tenth  and  last  king,  God 
will  reign  alone  as  in  the  beginning,  etc.,  exactly  as  Paul  maintained. 


312  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND    ITS    EFFP^CTS. 

Damascus  were  Judaized.  The  Apostles  would  not  ac- 
knowledge him,  and  the  Hebrews  did  not  believe  him  (GaL 
ii.  1).  He  went  to  Antioch,  and,  in  company  of  Barnabas, 
started  out  to  evangelize  the  Gentiles.  He  called  his  new 
religion  Christianity,  and  himself  the  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles. In  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  he  found  many  devout 
Gentiles ;  such  men  and  women  who  knew  Judaism  and 
the  Bible,  and  had  been  estranged  to  Paganism.  It  was 
chiefly  to  them  that  he  addressed  his  Messiah-Metathron 
doctrine.  He  inspired  terror  by  his  earnest  and  emphatic 
prediction  of  the  approaching  end  of  the  world,  the  fearless 
rehearsal  of  the  crimes  and  corruptions  among  the  Pagans, 
and  the  certainty  of  their  sudden  destruction  and  annihi- 
lation. Having  thus  crushed  them,  he  opened  for  them  the 
mysteries  of  the  Messiah-Metathron  drama,  a  gospel  of  his 
own,  which  promised  salvation  and  happiness ;  and  many 
believed.  He  made  it  easy  for  them,  for  he  declared  the 
Law  abolished  with  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  and  all  that 
was  required  of  them  was  love,  hope  and  faith  :  faith  in  his 
doctrines,  hope  in  the  speedy  approach  of  the  Son  of  God 
to  make  an  end  of  the  present  misery  and  this  world,  and  love 
to  one  another  in  these  last  days.  He  poured  out  for  them 
the  great  truths  of  the  Bible  and  the  floating  wisdom  and 
profound  ethics  of  the  Hebrews,  which  edified  and  con- 
verted them.  Like  the  other  Apostles,  he  persuaded  his 
converts  that  they  had  received  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the 
other  gifts  of  grace,  and  succeeded  in  rousing  that  unrea- 
soning enthusiasm  which  believes  blindly  and  works  itself 
up  to  a  state  of  ecstasy,  where  all  arguments  and  human 
speculations  fall  dead  to  the  ground.  He  organized  congre- 
gations, appointed  bishops,  presbyters  and  deacons,  and  he 
was  their  Apostle,  their  demi-god  and  mediator.  He  intro- 
duced among  them  the  common  meals  of  the  Hebrews, 
with  a  form  of  divine  worship  (43),  replacing  tlie  sacrificial 
meals  of  the  Pagans ;  and  added  to  it  that  at  each  of  those 
meals  they  should  eat  of  the  body  and  drink  of  the  blood 
of  Jesus  (figuratively)  in  memory  of  him,  as  he  had  so  or- 
dained at  his  last  supper,  so  that  they  should  eat,  drink, 
be  merry  and  worship  simultaneously.  In  fourteen  years  he 
laid  the  foundation  to  Gentile  Christianity,  a  peculiar  amal- 
gamation of  Hebrew  ethics  and  denationalized  theology 
with  Gnostic  mysticism  and  Pagan  conceptions,  destined, 
however,  to  overthrow  and  supersede  Greco-Roman  Pagan- 


(43)    Josephus'  Antiq.  xiv.,  x.  8;  Mishnah,  BERAcnoTii  vii.;  I.  Cor- 
inthians xi.  2U;  Martyrdom  of  Jesus,  etc.,  p.  40. 


MILITARY   DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS.  315 

ism,  to  be  then  itself  overthrown  in  its  turn  by  the  Logos- 
speculations  of  the  Alexandrian  Christians. 

32.     Paul's  Troubles  with  the  Apostles. 

Paul,  of  course,  was  grossly  abused  and  maltreated  by  or- 
thodox Pagans  and  orthodox  Hebrews,  although  he  kept  him- 
self on  good  ternis  with  the  Roman  authorities  by  preaching 
submission  to  those  who  bear  the  sword,  of  the  wife  to  her 
husband,  and  the  slave  to  his  master.  He  never  spoke  of 
liberty,  human  rights  or  such  other  subjects  which  might 
have  done  him  injury  with  the  men  in  power.  Denational- 
izing Judaism  and  condemning  the  Jewish  laws  as  he  did, 
he  had  nothing  to  say,  not  a  word,  of  the  woes  and  afflic- 
tions of  his  people ;  and,  representing  the  present  state  as  a 
mere  preparation  for  the  approaching  end  of  the  world,  he 
could  bestow  no  care  and  no  reflection  on  matters  and 
things  appertaining  to  this  sublunar  life.  Still  he  was  mal- 
treated and  abused  by  those  who  did  not  take  him  to  be  a 
harmless  and  visionary  fanatic.  His  greatest  difficulties, 
however,  were  with  the  Apostles  and  their  flock  in  Palestine. 
Although  he  glorified  their  Messianic  master,  and  built  up 
their  church  among  the  Gentiles,  he  collected  money  for 
them  and  sent  it  to  tliem  to  Palestine,  as  the  Pharisees  did 
to  their  teachers  in  the  Holy  Land  (44)  ;  he  was  a  man  of 
brilliant  mind  and  rare  energ}^  and  they  were  humble  fish- 
ermen;  nevertheless,  they  could  not  consent  to  his  teach- 
ings and  would  not  acknowledge  him  as  one  of  their  own 
(Galatians  i.  and  ii.).  They  could  not  do  it ;  for  they  obeyed 
and  he  abolished  the  Law.  Like  Jesus,  they  were  sent  to  the 
House  of  Israel  onl}'',  and  he  went  to  the  Gentiles  with  the 
message,  that  with  the  death  and  resurrection  of  the  Messiah 
the  covenant  and  the  Law  were  at  an  end,  and  a  new  dispen- 
sation, a  new  covenant,  begins.  They  glorified  their  master, 
whom  they  had  seen  and  heard  as  a  human  being,  and  he  pro- 
claimed a  pliantom,  half-man  and  half-angel,  entirely  foreign 
to  the  common  man's  conception.  They  had  one  Gospel 
story  and  he  had  another.  They  spoke  of  the  miracles  and 
teachings  of  Jesus,  he  never  mentioned  either,  always  re- 
ferred to  the  Old  Testament  and  his  own  wisdom,  and  con- 
demned "'  their  fables  and  endless  genealogies  "  in  the 
strongest  terms  (II.  Timothy  i.  3,  4)  (45).  They  prophesied 
the  speedy  return  of  their  master  from  the  realm  of  death  to 

(44)  Yerushalmi  Horiotii  iii.   7,  ^M)  ilCi'yo ;    Pesachim  53   b  ;    I. 
Corinthians  xvi.  1  to  3. 

(45)  See  our  Origin  of  Christianity,  p.  363. 


314  MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND   ITS    EFFECTS. 

restore  the  throne  of  David  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
and  he  prophesied  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  last  day  of 
judgment  to  be  at  hand.  They  preached  repentance  and 
baptized  penitent  sinners,  and  he  preached  faith  and  was 
not  sent  to  baptize  (I.  Corinthians  i.  17).  They  spoke  of 
Jesus  hanged  on  a  tree  (Acts  v.  30;  x.  39;  xiii.  29),  and  he 
insisted  on  preaching  him  crucified  (46).  They  forbid  their 
converts  to  eat  unclean  food,  and  especially  of  the  sacrifi- 
cial meals  of  Pagans,  and  he  made  light  of  both,  as  well  as 
of  the  Sabbath  and  circumcision  (I.  Corinthians  viii.)- 
They,  like  Jesus,  believed  in  one  God.  the  Almighty,  and  he 
preached  a  God  and  a  demi-God  (nviL""i  TiK'),  having  divided 
the  dominion  among  themselves.  The  Apostles,  more  so 
than  the  other  Hebrews,  must  have  considered  Paul  an  in- 
novator and  heretic,  who  made  their  beliefs  odious  with  the 
masses  and  criminal  before  the  Law.  To  endeavor  to  abol- 
ish the  entire  Law  is  certainly  rank  rebellion,  and  undoubt- 
edly cost  the  lives  of  James  and  his  compatriots.  The 
Apostles  made  repeated  attempts  to  avert  this  danger  and 
to  silence  Paul.  They  held  councils,  adopted  rules  for  the 
conduct  of  proselytes,  sent  messengers  after  Paul  to  undo 
his  innovations  and  to  reconvert  his  converts.  Paul  retali- 
ated forcibly  against  the  brothers  of  Jesus,  Peter  and  the 
other  Apostles  (47).  He  accused  them  of  not  leading  the 
most  pure  and  pious  lives,  and  Avas  as  fierce  against  his 
colleagues  in  Jerusalem  as  he  was  in  his  denunciations  of 
the  Law  and  circumcision.  These  difficulties  increased 
with  Paul's  successes,  and  so  damaged  both  parties  that  he 
at  last  found  it  necessary  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  attempt  a 
reconciliation  of  the  embittered  parties. 

33.     Paul  in  Jerusalem. 

Paul  arrived  in  Jerusalem  at  that  very  dangerous  time 
when  James,  the  brother  of  Jesus,  and  his  compatriots,  had 
been  put  to  death,  and  the  nascent  congregation  was  pre- 
sided over  by  the  other  James,  supi)osed  to  have  been  a 
cousin  of  Jesus,  the  man  who  wrote  the  Epistle  in  which 
Paulism  is  radically  denounced.  This  James,  called  in  the 
Talmud,  Jacob  of  Kaphersamia,  was  an  orthodox  Pharisee 
who  believed  in  the  Messiah  ship  of  Jesus  and  his  second 
advent,  practiced  necromancy  with  the  name  of  Jesus,  and 
spent  most  of  his  time  kneeling  in  the  temple  and  praying 
^'  till  his  knees   were   become    as    hard  and  brawny   as   a 


(46)  The  cause  was  stated  above,  end  of  Chapter  xviii. 

(47)  I.  Corinthians  ix.;  II.  Corinthians  xi.,  and  elsewhere. 


MILITARY    DESPOTISM    AND    ITS    EFFECTS.  315 

■camel's."     The  situation  of  Paul  was  painful.     He  stood 
before  a  synod  of  opponents,  meeting  in  the  house  of  James, 
*'  and  all  the  elders  were  present."     He  explained  to  them 
his  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  and  informed  them  that  he  had 
also  another  Gospel  which  he  preached  "  privately  to  them 
which  were  of  reputation."     But  the   reply  of  the  synod 
was  this  :  The  Jew-Cliristians  believe  and  are  zealous  of  the 
Law,  and  Paul  teaches  to  forsake  Moses  and  abolish  cir- 
cumcision ;  Avere  the  multitude  informed  of  his  presence  in 
Jerusalem,  he  would  not  be  safe  among  them  (Acts  xxi.  20 
to  22).     Therefore,  they   bid   liiin  recant,   practicaUy,  this 
pernicious  doctrine,  to  go  through,  with  four  of  their  Nazi- 
rites,  the  ceremonies  of  puritication  in  the  temple,  "  and  be 
at  charges  with   them,  that  they  may  shave  their  heads ; 
and  all  may  know  that  those  things  whereof  they  were  in- 
formed concerning  thee,   are  nothing ;  but  that  thou  thy- 
self also  walkest   orderly,  and    keepest    the    Law "    {Ihid. 
xxi,  24).     Paul  submitted  to  the  hypocrisy  inflicted  on  him. 
He  went  to  the  Temple  Mount  with  the  four  men,  to  pass 
through  the  whole  ceremonial  which  he  had  denounced  and 
condemned    so  emphatically.      Paul,    under  this   pressure 
of  imposed  hypocrisy,  keenly  felt  the  humiliation.     Speak- 
ing of  that  synod  (Galatians  ii.),  he  calls  the  heads  thereof 
*'  those  who  seemed  to  be  somewhat,  whatsoever  they  were," 
and  says  of  them  that  they  added  nothing  to  his  knowledge. 
The  rabbis  describe  his  feelings  thus  :  Acher,  or  Paul,  tells 
of  himself:  "  I  once  rode  behind  the  temple,  and  I  heard  the 
Bath-kol  exclaiming :  Return  all  ye  froward  children,  ex- 
cept Acher,  who  knows  my  glory  and  rebels  against  me." 
However,  a  number  of  Asiatic  Jews  recognized  Paul  on  the 
Temple  Mount,  a  disturbance  ensued,  and  the  Roman  sol- 
diers arrested  him   under  the   impression  that  he  was  the 
Egyptian  prophet  who  had  made  his  escape  sometime  be- 
fore.    Being  a  Roman  citizen  and  appealing  to  Caesar,  he 
was,  after  a  few  days,  taken  to  Csesarea,  to  be  sent  to  Rome 
with  other  prisoners.     Paul  was  certainly  glad  to  escape 
from  the  hands  of  his  friends,  and  to  go  to  Rome  and  before 
his  Gentile  converts  as  an  expatriated  and  persecuted  man,  ^ 
no  longer  one  of  the  Jew-Christians.     Three  of  the  Apos- 
tles acknowledged  him   an    apostle  to  the   Gentiles;    not, 
however,  an  apostle  to  the  Hebrews. 

34.     Paul  Sent  to  Rome. 

Not  before  Felix,  but  before  Albinus,  Paul  must  have 
had  a  hearing  in  Cfesarea,  since  the  highpriest,  Ananus,  who 
appeared  as  prosecutor  against  him,  had  been  appointed, 


316  MILITARY    DESPOTISM   AND   ITS    EFFECTS. 

62  A.  c,  by  Agrippa  II.  No  very  aggravated  accusation  was 
preferred  against  Paul,  especially  as  he  had  preached  his 
doctrines  outside  of  Palestine,  so  that  Agrippa  XL,  who  alsa 
heard  his  case,  did  not  find  him  guilty  ol'  any  punishable 
deed.  Like  all  other  prisoners  who  came  into  the  hands  of 
Albinus,  Paul  also  was  held  in  Csesarea  without  any  further 
notice  to  the  close  of  that  governor's  administration,  two 
years,  62  and  63  a.  c.  (Josephus'  Antiq.  xx.,  ix.  5),  and  then 
he  was  sent  to  Rome  with  other  prisoners.  In  Rome, 
where  no  Christian  congregation  was  at  the  time,  Paul  was 
again  a  Hebrew  among  HebreAvs.  They  had  received  no 
letters  out  of  Judea  concerning  him.  nor  had  they  any  in- 
formation to  incriminate  him,  and  so  they  treated  him  well, 
as  one  of  themselves.  There  was  a  tradition  in  the  church 
that  Paul  stood  twice  before  Nero  (II.  Timothy  iv.  22),  but 
it  is  uncertain.  It  is  sure  that  he  was  in  Rome  two  3'ears 
(64  and  65  a.  c.)  in  his  own  hired  house,  and  was  not  in- 
cluded among  the  Christians  persecuted  by  Nero,  because 
he  was  known  there  as  a  Hebrew  and  not  as  a  Christian. 
It  is  also  certain  that  he  returned  from  Rome  to  Asia,  trav- 
eled in  Italy  and  Illyricum  (Romans  xv.  19),  wrote  his 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  other  epistles  after  his  return 
from  Rome  and  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  ((lala- 
tians  iv.  25),  when  his  main  work  commenced.  When  Paul 
came  to  Rome  he  was  no  older  than  thirty-six  years,  and  he 
had  already  done  the  work  of  a  man.  During  the  four 
years  of  his  captivit}''  in  Csesarea  and  Rome,  many  of  his 
converts  turned  from  his  teachings.  Some  of  them  em- 
braced Judaism,  like  Priscilla  and  Aqnila  (Romans  xvi. 
3),  while  others  embraced  Jew  Christianity  ;  so  that  on  his 
return  he  found  much  to  correct,  mnch  to  repent,  and  many 
opportunities  to  amend  what  he  had  done  or  said  in  the 
days  of  youth,  zeal  and  eccentricity.  After  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem,  when  Paul  was  about  forty  years  old,  his  main 
work  as  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  done.  The  stories  of 
his  and  Peter's  martyrdom  are  certainly  fictitious. 


Period  YI.— The  Catastrophe. 


This  period,  comprising  less  than  six  years,  is,  nevertheless,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  chapters  in  history.  A  down-trodden  peo- 
ple, deserted  by  its  own  aristocracy,  rises,  lion-like,  to  fight  for 
its  independence  and  bids  defiance  to  mighty  Rome,  Death- 
defying  deeds,  bravery  and  heroism,  which  the  utmost  suffering 
could  not  bend,  characterize  the  unequal  combat  of  the  Hebrew 
patriots  pitched  against  Rome's  mighty  legions  and  her  numer- 
ous allies.  The  mighty  ones  fell  buried  under  the  ruins  of  the 
cities  which  they  defended  to  the  last ;  Jerusalem  and  its  glorious 
temple,  crimsoned  with  the  blood  of  their  champions,  are  laid 
waste  by  a  raging  and  barbarous  enemy  ;  all  the  furies  of  destruc- 
tion are  let  loose,  over  a  million  of  lives  are  sacrificed,  and  tens 
of  thousands  are  sold  into  slavery,  expatriated,  or  otherwise 
driven  into  foreign  lands,  and  the  political  existence  of  the  He- 
brews is  drowned  in  the  blood  of  its  patriots.  No  nation  closed 
its  political  career  more  heroically  than  Israel  did,  none  was 
more  patriotic ;  because  none  had  holier  treasures  to  guard  or 
more  glorious  reminiscences  by  which  to  be  inspired  than  Israel 
had.  Liberty  or  death  was  the  parole  in  this  mighty  struggle  ; 
death  was  victorious  and  liberty  was  buried  under  the  ruins  of 
Jerusalem. 


318  PKEJ.UDES    TO    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


Preludes  to  the   War. 


1.    The  Last  of  the  Procueators  (64-66  a.  c). 

The  last  of  the  thirteen  Roman  Procurators  in  Judea^ 
Gessius  Florus,  was  also  the  worst.  By  a  series  of  villain- 
ous outrages  he  forced  the  Hehrews  into  the  rebellion  and 
war  which  ended  with  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  political  death  of  the  Hebrews  of  Palestine.  The  Ro- 
man government  in  the  orient  had  become  so  much  more 
despotic  and  intolerable  under  Nero's  misrule,  and  the  mal- 
administration of  his  President  of  Syria,  Cestius  Gallus, 
on  account  of  the  threatening  attitude  of  the  Parthians^ 
and  the  prediction  and  wide -spread  apprehension  that  the 
orient  was  seeking  predominancy  over  the  Occident  and 
Rome.  So  Palestine  also  Avas  subjected  to  continual  suspi- 
cion and  martial  law.  The  boundless  and  shameless  avarice 
and  malice  of  Gessius  Florus  and  of  his  wife,  Cleopatra, 
intensified  the  despotism  to  an  unbearable  degree.  He 
treated  tlie  Hebrews  as  though  he  had  been  sent  to  them 
as  an  executioner  to  punish  condemned  malefactors,  says 
Josephus,  and  Tacitus  (History  x.,  v.)  confirms  it. 

2.     The  Situation. 

What  Al])inus  had  done  under  the  cloak  of  dissimula- 
tion, Florus  did  openly  and  pompously,  to  secure  all  the 
money  of  private  persons  or  public  institutions  which  could 
be  extorted  by  an  abuse  of  authority,  the  aid  of  maraud- 
ers, and  the  menaces  of  expatriation  or  death.  Whole  dis- 
tricts ransacked  by  the  Procurator's  soldiers  or  robbers 
were  impoverished.  No  man  of  wealth  was  safe  at  any  time 
or  place.  Tliere  was  no  protection  of  life  or  property.  _  The 
situation  was  aggravated  by  the  despotism  of  the  President 


PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR.  319 

of  Syria,  who  would  not  permit  an  appeal  for  redress  to 
him.  He  came  to  Jerusalem  on  Passover  (65  a.  c.)  and 
was  there  petitioiied  by  the  representatives  of  three  millions 
of  people,  said  to  have  been  assembled  then  in  and  about 
Jerusalem.  He  promised  much,  did  nothing,  and  left  Florus 
to  give  vent  to  his  wrath  against  those  who  had  dared  to- 
complain.  Many  of  the  wealthy  citizens  left  the  country, 
but  many  more  gave  support  to  the  Zealots,  determined  to 
expel  Florus  from  the  land.  Among  the  latter  there  was 
the  youth  of  the  land,  the  flower  of  the  fighting  population, 
inspired  with  a  glowing  patriotism  not  impaired  by  consid- 
erations of  probabilities,  dangers  or  death.  With  the  op- 
pression the  enchusiasm  grew,  and  prudence  gradually  lost 
its  influence. 

3.    The  First  Conflict. 

Interests,  pride  and  principles  tied  many  aristocratic 
families,  and  among  them  also  many  Hillel  Pharisees,  to 
the  Roman  government.  They  still  desired  peace,  and 
might  have  succeeded  in  frustrating  the  rebellion,  if  Florus 
had  not  committed  one  treacherous  outrage  after  another^ 
apparently  with  the  avowed  intention  of  forcing  the  He- 
brews into  rebellion  and  war,  in  order  to  fill  his  coffers,  to 
cover  or  justify  his  atrocities,  and  to  satisfy  his  blood- 
thirsty disposition.  An  outrage  was  committed  at  Ceesa- 
rea.  The  Hebrews  of  that  city,  built  by  Herod  I.  with  the 
money  of  his  people,  had  been  ostracized  by  an  edict  of 
Nero,  as  noticed  above,  and  at  this  time  the  embassadors 
returned  from  Rome  with  the  edict.  The  Gentiles  did  their 
worst  to  mortify  the  Hebrews.  The  latter  had  a  synagogue 
in  the  city,  around  which  the  ground  was  owned  by  a  Greek. 
He  hemmed  in  the  sanctuary  by  low  shops  and  left  but  a, 
narrow  passage  to  it.  The  young  Hebrews  made  a  demon- 
stration against  the  outrage,  but  they  were  restrained  by 
military  force.  Eight  talents  were  collected  and  given  to 
Florus  "in  order  to  obtain  justice  from  him.  He  took  the 
money,  promised  redress  and  protection,  and  then  left  the 
city  f-)r  Sebaste.  His  absence  encouraged  the  enemies  of 
the  Hebrews.  On  Sabbath,  while  they  were  assembled  in 
the  synagogue,  a  Greek  sacrificed  a  bird  at  its  door  to  insult 
them"^,  by"  insinuating,  as  in  Manetho's  and  Apion's  story, 
that  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  were  leprous.^  A  fight 
ensued  which  was  stopped  by  mihtary  intervention.  The 
Hebrews  took  their  Scrolls  of  the  Law  and  retired  to  the 
neighboring  town  of  Narbata,  while  a  deputation  of  thirteen 
went  to  Sebaste  to  remind  Florus  of  his  duty  and  promises. 


S20  I-HKIA'DES    TO    THE    WAR. 

He  threw  them  into  a  prif^on,  did  nothing  for  the  outraged 
Hebrews,  and  sent  men  to  Jerusalem  to  bring  him  seven- 
teen talents  of  silver  from  the  temple  treasury, 

4.     The  Second  Conflict. 

The  people  of  Jerusalem,  exasperated  by  the  conduct  of 
Florus  at  Csesarea  and  Sebaste,  peremptorily  refused  his 
demand  for  money.  Some,  to  shame  his  avarice,  went 
round  with  cliarity  boxes  to  collect  money  for  the  greedy 
Procurator.  He  instantly  came  to  Jerusalem  and  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  men  who  had  insulted  him.  This 
being  refused,  he  ordered  his  soldiers  to  ransack  the  resi- 
dences of  the  rich  at  the  Upper  Market.  A  horrible  scene 
of  bloodshed  and  rapine  ensued.  Those  who  were  caught 
alive  were  scourged  and  crucified,  among  them  women  and 
children,  and  also  citizens  of  the  equestrian  rank.  Three 
thousand  and  six  hundred  persons  fell  on  that  sixteenth 
day  of  lyar.  In  vain  did  Berenice,  the  sister  of  Agrippa 
II.,  humiliate  herself  before  the  bloodthirsty  man,  suing  for 
mercy  for  the  innocent ;  nothing  would  arrest  his  fury. 
The  next  morning  the  horrified  multitude  gathered  at  the 
Upper  Market,  lamented  over  the  slain  ones,  and  cursed 
their  villainous  murderer.  The  rulers  and  priests,  dread- 
ing a  repetition  of  the  scenes  of  the  previous  day,  besought 
and  persuaded  the  people  to  disperse  and  keep  quiet.  Then 
Florus  sent  for  them  and  told  them  tliat,  unless  the  people 
turn  out  to  salute  the  trooj^s  coming  in  from  Csesarea,  as  a 
token  of  sul)mission  to  the  Roman  authority,  he  would  con- 
tinue the  massacre  and  rapine.  They  exerted  their  utmost 
influence  to  persuade  some  of  the  multitude,  for  the  sake 
of  their  city,  country  and  sanctuary,  to  deprive  the  villain 
of  every  pretext  for  the  opening  of  a  war,  which  might  end 
in  utter  disaster.  ^Nlany  went  out  to  salute  the  cohorts 
who,  according  to  instructions,  treated  the  Hebrews  with 
contempt.  Some  of  the  multitude  giving  vent  to  their 
disappointment,  the  soldiers  rushed  upon  the  crowd  of  un- 
armed men  and  assaulted  them  with  clubs.  A  stnmpede 
and  a  horrible  slauglit(>r  followed,  at  the  suburb  of  Rozctha. 
The  race  for  the  Temple  Mount  made  by  the  people  and  the 
soldiers  simultaneously,  was  won  by  "the  former.  From 
those  positions  the  Hebrews  turned"  against  the  Romans, 
galled  them  sorely  and  forced  them  to  retreat  to  the  palace. 
Now  the  connection  between  the  temple  and  Fort  An- 
tonia  was  broken  down,  and  Florus  was  convinced  that  his 
way  to   the   temple  treasury  was  barricaded.     Seeing  the 


PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR.  321 

main  object  of  his  villainies  beyond  his  reach  and  himself  in 
imminent  danger,  he  left  a  small  garrison  in  the  city  and 
returned  to  Cffisarea,  followed  by  the  curses  of  the  mourn- 
ing multitude. 

5.    Agrippa  II.  AS  Pacificator. 

Florus,  eager  to  bring  on  the  war,  wrote  to  Cestius  that 
all  the  Hebrews  were  in  a  state  of  revolt  against  Rome. 
However^  the  rulers  of  Jerusalem  and  Queen  Berenice  also, 
wrote  letters  to  Cestius  and  informed  him  of  the  true  state 
of  affairs.  It  was  resolved  in  the  council  of  Cestius  to  send 
Neopolitanus  to  Jerusalem  to  ascertain  the  truth.  He  went 
to  Lydda  to  meet  Agrippa  II.  The  rulers  of  Jerusalem,  and 
members  of  tlie  Sanhedrin  also,  came  to  Lydda  to  welcome 
King  Agrippa,  who  had  just  returned  from  Alexandria.  The 
representative  men  of  the  HebrcM's  maintained  that  the 
people  were  not  rebellious  against  Ronie ;  it  was  against 
Florus  that  arms  liad  been  taken  up,  and  persuaded  both, 
King  Agrippa  and  Neopolitanus,  to  go  with  them  to  Jeru- 
salem in  order  to  convince  themselves  of  the  peaceful  dispo- 
sition of  its  citizens,  and  their  devotion  to  Rome.  Sixty 
furlongs  distant  from  the  city  they  were  received  by  a 
stately  procession  of  people  and  escorted  to  the  palace. 
The  city  was  quiet,  orderly  and  under  the  complete  control 
of  law.  The  popular  men  asked  the  privilege  ot  sending 
an  embassy  to  Nero  to  prove  that  they  were  not  disposed 
to  revolt,  and  that  Florus  was  the  cause  of  the  prevailing 
dissatisfaction.  Instead  of  granting  this  reasonable  re- 
quest, Agrippa  called  the  multitude  together  and  addressed 
them  in  a  most  elaborate  speech,  which  Josephus  has  pre- 
served (Wars  II.  XV.  4).  With  his  sister,  Berenice,  he  ap- 
peared before  the  people,  described  to  them  the  vastness  of 
the  Roman  power,  which  to  withstand  successfully  they 
could  have  no  reasonable  hope.  He  predicted  to  them 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  and  the  city,  the  ruination 
of  the  entire  country  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Hebrew 
nation,  if  they  insisted  on  war  with  Rome  and  be  the 
losers  in  the  end.  He  closed  thus  :  "  Have  pity,  therefore, 
if  not  upon  your  children  and  wives,  yet  upon  this  your 
metropolis,  and  its  sacred  walls  ;  spare  the  temple,  and  pre- 
serve the  holy  house,  with  its  holy  furniture,  for  your- 
selves," etc.  "  I  call  to  Avitness  your  sanctuary  and  the 
holy  angels  of  God,  and  this  country  common  to  us  all,"  he 
saicl,  "  that  I  have  not  kept  back  anything  that  is  for  your 
preservation,"  etc.     Then  he  and  his  sister  wept.     The  re- 


322  PRELUDES   TO   THE    WAR. 

sponse  was  that  they  would  not  fight  against  Rome,  but 
against  Florus.  Agrippa  told  them  that  they  were  already 
in  a  state  of  revolt  against  Rome  by  non-payment  of  the 
tribute  and  the  demolition  of  the  galleries  between  the  tem- 
ple and  the  fort.  His  words  impressed  the  people ;  the  re- 
building of  those  galleries  was  commenced  at  once,  and 
messengers  were  dispatched  to  Florus  to  send  a  collector 
to  receive  the  tribute.  It  appeared  momentarily,  that  the 
danger  of  an  immediate  war  with  Rome  was  averted. 

6.     Two  Hostile  Events. 

It  was  too  late  to  reason  with  outraged  men,  who  valued 
liberty  higher  than  life.  The  treatment  received  from  the 
Procurators  after  the  death  of  Agrippa  I.  had  driven  many 
to  desperation,  and  changed  law-abiding  men  into  lions  with 
hearts  of  flint.  They  saw  only  the  bloody  wrong  committed 
by  Rome,  and  their  right  to  be  free.  The  politicians  and 
statesmen  of  Jerusalem  could  contemplate  chances,  inter- 
ests and  probabilities  ;  the  multitude  felt  the  wrongs  and 
would  not  reason.  Therefore,  while  momentary  pacifica- 
tion was  acliieved  in  Jerusalem,  a  party  of  Zealots  took 
Masada,  the  armory  of  King  Heroct,  massacred  its  Roman  gar- 
rison and  replaced  it  by  their  own  men.  Plenty  of  arms  were 
captured.  Menahem,  the  grandson  of  Juda  the  Galilean,  was 
the  leader  of  that  party.  He  represented  the  fourth  gen- 
eration in  revolt  against  the  Roman  usurpation.  This  vic- 
tory re-echoed  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  Its  governor, 
Eleazar,  son  of  the  ex-highpriest,  Ananus,  persuaded  the- 
officiating  priests  to  receive  no  gift  or  sacrifice  for  the  tem- 
ple of  any  Gentile,  and  they  rejected  on  this  account  alsO' 
the  usual  sacrifice  for  the  emperor.  This,  says  Josephus,. 
was  the  beginning  of  the  war.  It  certainly  was  an  unmis- 
takable declaration  of  it.  This  appears  to  have  been  the 
time  when  the  stormy  meeting  of  the  Shammaites  and  Hil- 
lelites  took  place  in  the  hall  of  Ananus  b.  Chiskiah,  over 
one  of  the  temple  cloisters.  Then  the  Eighteen  Interdic- 
tions were  enacted,  one  of  which  was  to  refuse  all  sacrifices 
and  gifts  of  Gentiles  for  the  temple,  while  the  others  pro- 
hibited the  purchase  of  oil,  wine  and  other  articles  of  luxury 
of  the  Gentiles,  to  intermarry  with  any  of  them,  or  to  speak 
any  of  their  languages,  and  laws  concerning  Levitical  clean- 
ness. The  Shammaites,  with  swords  in  hand,  forced  the 
Hillelites  to  sanction  those  laws,  with  the  proviso  that  they 


PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR.  32^ 

should  never  be  repealed,  in  order  to  keep  the  Hebrews  en- 
tirely and  forever  separated  from  the  Heathens  (1). 

7.     The  Outbreak  of  Civil  War. 

The  moderate  party  called  a  meeting  to  the  inner  court 
of  the  temple,  and  made  one  more  attempt  to  maintain  the 
peace.  It  was  proved  by  men  of  learning  that  the  gifts 
and  sacritices  of  Heathens  had  always  been  accepted  by 
the  rulers  of  the  temple,  and  that  Heathens  had  largely 
contributed  to  its  splendor  and  wealth.  The  contemplated 
war  with  Rome  was  denounced  as  a  national  calamity,  cer- 
tain to  bring  destruction  upon  the  nation,  its  capital  and 
temple.  However,  the  leaders  of  the  war  party  were  deter- 
mined to  shake  off  the  Roman  yoke  or  to  die  in  the  at- 
tempt, and  gave  expression  to  their  resolution  in  unmistak- 
able words.  Unable  to  change  the  death-defying  determi- 
nation of  the  war  party,  and  knowing  that  vengeance  would 
be  meted  out  first  on  the  rich  and  the  men  in  power,  they 
sent  embassies  to  Florus  and  Agrippa,  praying  them  to  send 
sufficient  military  forces  to  the  city  to  crush  the  rebellion  at 
once.  Florus,  who  wanted  war,  took  no  notice  of  the  peti- 
tion ;  Agrippa  sent  three  thousand  men  to  assist  the  mod- 
erate party.  This  started  the  civil  war  in  Jerusalem.  The 
war  party  seized  upon  the  Temple  Mount,  and  the  peace 
party,  with  the  three  thousand  soldiers,  took  possession  of 
Mount  Zion ;  active  hostilities  were  begun  and  continued 
for  seven  days  with  bloody  results,  without  advantage  to 
either  party.  Meanwhile,  the  fifteenth  day  of  Ab,  the  prin- 
cipal Xylophory  (d''W  \y^?)  n.pproached  ;  a  large  number  of 
2:)ilgrims,  and  with  them  also  many  Sicarii,  arrived,  and 
augmented  the  ranks  of  the  war  party.  The  partisans  of 
the  peace  party  were  rigidly  excluded  from  the  Temple 
Mount,  which  roused  their  indignation,  and  brought  on  an 
action  in  force  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  Ab.  The  men 
from  the  Temple  Mount,  led  by  Eleazar  b.  Ananus,  sallied 
forth  in  force,  routed  the  soldiers  and  drove  them  into  the 
king's  palace  on  Mount  Zion.  Now  the  victorious  party 
began  its  work  of  destruction ;  the  palaces  of  Ananus,. 
Agrippa  and  Berenice,  and  the  city  archives,  were  burnt,, 
together  with   all    the    documents    therein,   so    that    every 

(1)  Sabbath  13  b ;  Yerushalmi  and  Tosephta  1.  The  captain  of 
the  temple,  who  took  the  lead  in  this  matter,  is  called  in  the  Mishnah 
Orlak  II.  12,  HT'^n  U'H  "iTyV,  who  was  a  Shammaite.  Josephus  re- 
ports only  as  much  of  those  Eighteen  Interdictions  as  referred  to  the 
temple  and  public  business.    The  Talmud  reports  the  others. 


324  PKEl.UDES    TO    TlIK    WAK. 

evidence  of  indebtedness  was  wiped  out.  The  leaders  of 
the  peace  party  were  slain,  except  those  who  retreated  with 
the  soldiers  to  the  palace,  and  some  others,  like  Ananus, 
who  sought  refuge  in  vaults  under  the  ground. 

8,     From  the   Fifteenth   Day   of   Ab    to   the  Sixth  of 

Ellul. 

Next  day,  Fort  Antonia  was  taken  by  Eleazer  b.  Ananus, 
the  garrison  was  slain  and  the  citadel  set  on  fire.  Then 
the  palace  was  attacked,  but  could  not  be  taken  at  once. 
The  war  party  was  now  reinforced  by  Menahem,  the  Gali- 
lean, with  his  well-armed  band  of  Zealots  from  Masada.  He 
seized  upon  the  chief  command,  and  began  his  operations 
with  the  siege  of  the  palace.  He  pressed  it  vigorously, 
and  the  besieged  capitulated.  They  were  permitted  to 
leave  the  city,  except  tlie  Romans,  who  mistrusted  Mena- 
hem. With  considerable  loss  they  reached  the  towers  of 
Hippicus,  Phasaelus  and  Mariamne,  leaving  their  camp 
equipage  and  war  engines  in  the  hands  of  Menahem.  The 
city,  with  the  exception  of  the  three  besieged  towers,  was 
now  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  war  party. 

9.     The  Death  of  Menahem. 

Previous  to  that  day,  a  party  of  miners,  digging  under 
the  Willi  of  the  palace,  captured  "the  ex-highpriest,  Ananus, 
and  his  brother,  hid  in  the  aqueduct.  Menahem  had  both 
of  them  slain,  although  Eleazar  was  the  massacred  man's 
son.  After  his  victories,  Menahem  was  also  accused  of  be- 
having like  a  king,  endangering  the  liberty  just  won. 
Eleazar,  at  last,  succeeded  in  raising  a  sedition  against 
him  on  the  Temple  Mount ;  he  and  his  men  were  overpow- 
ered, many  of  them  were  slain  ;  some,  under  Eleazar  b 
Jairus,  escaped  to  Masada.  Menahem 'fled  to  Ophel  and 
was  slain  there,  leaving  Eleazar  b.  Ananus  master  of  the 
situation. 

10.      Treachery  ano  Massacre. 

Eleazar  b.  Ananus  continued  the  siese  of  the  towers 
and  the  Romans  at  last  capitulated  and^left  the  citv  un- 
armed. Outside  of  the  walls,  however,  all  pledges  and 
promises  were  set  at  naught  by  the  infuriated  Zealots.  They 
lell  upon  the  Romans  and  brutallv  massacred  them  The 
men  of  peace  were  no  longer  permitted  to  raise  their  voices 
-Liie  priests  of  the  peace  party  heard  a  voice  from  the  tern- 


PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR.  325 

pie,  "  Let  us  remove  hence,"  and  the  terrible  prophet  of 
woe  who  had  raised  his  voice  already  in  the  time  of  Albi- 
nus,  cried  aloud  :  "  A  voice  from  the  east,  a  voice  from  the 
west,  a  voice  from  the  four  winds,  a  voice  against  Jeru- 
salem and  the  holy  house,  a  voice  against  the  bridegrooms 
and  tlie  brides,  and  a  voice  against  this  whole  people  "  (2). 
The  victors  shouted  in  Jerusalem,  but  many  were  the  pa- 
triots who  mourned.     Once  more  Jerusalem  was  free. 

11.      Massacre  op  Hebrews  and  Gentiles. 

The  very  same  day  and  hour,  says  Josephus,  Avhen  the 
Roman  soldiers  were  slain  before  the  wnlls  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Gentile  inhabitants  of  Csesarea  slew  all  the  Hebrews  of 
that  city.  Twenty  thousand  men,  women  and  children 
were  massacred  in  one  day,  and  nothing  was  done  by  th(i 
Roman  authorities  to  prevent  or  avenge  the  horrid  slaugh- 
ter. The  Hebrews,  enraged  by  this  bloodshed,  rose  in  large 
numbers  all  over  the  land,  attacked  the  Syrinn  and  Tyrian 
cities,  including  Ptolemais,  Ca^sarea,  Sebaste,  Anthedon  and 
Gaza,  demolished,  burnt  and  plundered  them  and  the  vil- 
lages protected  by  them,  and  took  summary  vengeance. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Gentiles  committed  the  same  bar- 
barities. All  over  Sj-ria,  except  in  Antioch  and  some 
smaller  cities  where  they  were  too  numerous,  a  war  of 
extermination  was  Avaged  against  the  Hebrews  and  the 
Judaizers  that  dwelt  among  them.  Thousands  were  slain 
and  other  thousands  put  in  chains.  Two  races  raged 
against  each  other  in  boundless  fury.  The  corpses  lay  in 
the  streets  unburied.  In  Scythopolis,  the  Hebrew  inhabit- 
ants had  made  common  cause  with  the  Gentiles,  and  the 
hostile  Hebrews  who  attacked  the  city  were  defeated.  But 
scarcely  was  the  danger  averted,  when  the  Gentiles  of  Scy- 
thopolis, in  a  most  treacherous  manner,  destroyed  all  their 
Hebrew  fellow-citizens,  about  thirteen  thousand.  On  this 
occasion  a  terrible  man  and  heroic  warrior,  Simon  b.  Saul, 
distinguished  himself  in  a  horrible  manner  by  slaying  his 
whole  familv  and  then  committing  suicide,  in  order  not  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  treacherous  enemy.  Also  in 
Agrippa's  dominion  seventy  distinguished  men  of  Batanea/ 
were  slain  by  his  regent,  Noarsus ;  but  Agrippa  was  in- 
formed in  time,  and, "deposing  Noarsus,  prevented  further 
bloodshed.  In  the  southeast  of  the  land,  the  Hebrews  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  Machaerus  which  they  garrisoned,  and  also 


(2)    Josephus'  Wars  vi.,  v.  3. 


326  PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR. 

Cypres,  near  Jericho,  which  they  demolished;  so  that  the 
Romans  had  no  foothold  in  the  southern  part  of  the  land. 
The  worst  treacher}',  however,  was  committed  on  the  He- 
brews of  Damascus.  The  women  of  that  city  were  mostly 
attached  to  the  religion  of  Israel,  and  their  husbands  fear- 
ing a  conspiracy  with  the  resident  Hebrews,  fell  treacher- 
ously upon  the  latter  and  cut  the  throats  of  about  ten 
thousand  of  those  who  were  unarmed  and  could  not  defend 
themselves. 

12.    The  Massacre  in  Alexandria, 

The  Alexandrian  Hebrews  were  most  violently  hated  by 
their  Gentile  neighbors,  because  they  were  more  pros})er()Us. 
The  bloody  scenes  in  Syria  re-echoed  in  Egypt.  The  Alex- 
andrian Gentiles  became  seditious  against  the  Hebrews. 
At  a  public  meeting  in  the  theater,  to  send  a  deputation 
to  Nero,  a  number  of  Hebrews  were  present.  The  populace 
declared  them  spies,  fell  on  them  and  killed  several  of  them. 
Three  Hebrews  were  captured  and  dragged  to  the  pyre. 
Meanwhile,  the  others  had  been  thoroughly  alarmed  and 
came  in  large  numbers  to  rescue  their  co-religionists,  which 
they  did,  and  then  threatened  to  set  the  theater  on  tire.  A 
bloody  affray  ensued  and  ail  the  furies  were  let  loose.  The 
Hebrews  were  numerous  and  valiant,  and  the  populace  mad, 
bloodthirsty  and  greedy  for  booty.  The  Gentiles  were  rein- 
forced by  five  thousand  Lybian  savages.  There  were  two 
Koman  legions  stationed  in  the  city,  and  they  might  have 
restored  order,  but  they  were  under  the  command  of  Tiber- 
ius Alexander,  the  renegade,  who  sided  with  the  poi^ulace. 
He  sent  peacemakers  first,  and  when  they  were  unsuccess- 
ful, the  two  legions  reinforced  the  populace,  and  a  terrible 
conflict  was  fought  out  in  the  streets  of  Alexandria  first, 
then  in  the  Delta  quarter,  inhabited  by  Hebrews  exclu- 
sively. Those  Hebrews  fought  for  several  days  that  whole 
furious  crowd,  but  were  finally  overpowered  and  slain  with- 
out mercy,  till  the  place  was  drenched  with  l)lood,  and  fifty 
thousand  dead  Hebrew  men,  women  and  children  covered 
the  streets  of  that  city,  half  of  the  Hebrew^  houses  were 
ransacked  and  destroyed,  and  the  fury  and  greed  of  the 
populace  had  been  satiated. 

13.     Cestius  Attempts  to  Vanquish  the  Hebrews 
(66  A.  c). 

This  bloody  conflict  of  the  races  might  have  been  sup- 
pressed either  by  securing  to  the  Hebrews  what  they  wanted 


1 


PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR.  327 

and  had  the  indisputable  right  to  ask,  viz.  :  free  government, 
as  their  laws,  traditions,  institutions, state  of  civilization,  and 
historical  character  required;  or,  by  giving  them,  with 
the  foreign  government,  also  the  benefit  of  its  protection, 
as  Julius  Caesar  had  done.  But  Nero  occupied  the  throne 
of  the  Caesars,  and  every  idea  of  justice  was  defunct  in 
Rome.  Cestius  Gallus  governed  Syria  as  Tiberius  did 
Alexandria,  and  as  Gessius  Florus  tyrannized  over  Judea. 
Instead  of  thinking  of  concessions  and  reforms  to  pacify 
the  excited  multitude  and  assist  the  peace  party  in  Pales- 
tine, Cestius  resolved  upon  making  a  speedy  end  of  the  re- 
bellion by  terror  and  slaughter.  He  concentrated  the  forces 
of  the  petty  princes,  among  them  also  Agrippa  II.,  to  re- 
inforce the  Roman  legions,  and  made  an  excursion  from 
Ptolemais  into  the  northern  countr}'.  The  beautiful  city  of 
Zabulon  was  the  first  to  be  surprised,  but  its  inhabitants 
had  fled  to  the  mountains.  The  city  was  ransacked  and 
partly  destroyed.  He  overran  the  whole  northern  country 
and  gave  it  up  to  his  bloodthirsty  and  rapacious  hordes, 
and  then  returned  to  Ptolemais,  believing  he  had  terrified 
the  victims  of  his  bloody  despotism.  The  fugitive  Hebrews 
in  the  mountains,  however,  seized  upon  the  favorable  mo- 
ment, returned  to  their  homes,  especially  at  Zabulon  and 
Berytus,  and  slew  two  thousand  of  the  invciders.  Now  Ces- 
tius marched  with  his  whole  force  from  Ptolemais  to  Cses- 
area,  sent  one  detachment  to  Joppe,  another,  of  horsemen, 
into  the  populous  district  of  Narbatene,  and  a  third,  under 
Gallus,  the  commander  of  the  Twelfth  Legion,  into  Galilee. 
Joppe  was  surprised,  captured,  ransacked,  burnt,  and  eight 
thousand  four  hundred  of  its  inhabitants  were  slain.  The 
same  implacable  barbarities  were  enacted  at  Narbatene.  In 
Galilee,  however,  the  peace  party  predominated  at  Sep- 
phoris,  and  its  gates  were  opened  to  the  Romans,  Avho  were 
received  Avith  acclamations  of  joy.  The  rebels  fled  to  the 
mountains,  and  concentrated  about  the  Asamon  range. 
Gallus  defeated  and  scattered  them,  and  returned  to  Caesarea. 

14.     The  Defeat  of  Cestius  Gallus  Before  Jerusalem 
IN  THE  Fall  of  66  a.  c. 

Now  Cestius,  again  concentrating  his  forces,  marched  on 
Jerusalem.  He  stopped  at  Antipatris  to  fight  those  who 
had  sought  refuge  in  the  tower  of  Aphek,  but  they  had  fled 
and  dispersed  before  his  arrival.  Then  he  stopped  at  Lydda, 
which  he  found  deserted ;  its  inhabitants  had  gone  to  Jeru- 
salem to  celebrate  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.     This,  however, 


328  PRELUDES    TO    THE    WAR. 

did  not  prevent  him  from  ransacking  and  burning  the  city^ 
and  slaying  the  forty  men  who  had  been  left  behind  to 
guard  tlie  homes  of  the  pilgrims.  Then  he  marched  to 
Gabao,  thirty-five  thousand  feet  distant  from  Jerusalem.  It 
was  on  the  tSabbath  and  a  high  feast,  and  Ccstius  thought 
he  might  take  the  city  without  trouble.  But  the  citizens 
and  pilgrims  rushed  to  arms,  made  a  daring  and  impetuous 
attack  on  the  forces  of  Cestius,  and  routed  them.  The 
cavalry  saved  them  from  utter  destruction,  still  they  lost 
five  hundred  and  fifteen  men.  Among  the  most  valiant 
leaders  on  that  occasion  were  Monabaz  and  Kenedius, 
kinsmen  of  the  King  of  Adiabene,  Niger,  of  Perea,  and 
Silas,  of  Babylon  ;  the  latter  had  been  the  commander  of 
cavalry  in  King  Agrippa's  army.  The  Hebrews  were  obliged 
to  retreat  back  to  the  city,  because  the}^  had  no  cavalry; 
and  Cestius  marched  back  to  Beth-Horon.  His  rear,  how- 
ever, was  attacked  by  Simon  1).  Gorion's  band,  who  cap- 
tured many  beasts  loaded  with  arms.  The  Hebrews  inside 
of  the  city  and  on  the  eminences  around  it,  now  prepared 
for  resolute  resistance.  Agrippa  II.,  who  was  with  Cestius, 
tried  once  more  to  persuade  the  people  to  submission,  and 
sent  two  embassadors  to  the  city;  one  of  them,  however, 
Avas  killed  outside  of  the  walls,  and  the  other  fled,  severely 
wounded,  which  roused  the  anger  of  the  people  against  the 
murderers,  who  were  beaten  with  stones  and  clubs  and 
driven  into  the  city.  Next  day  Cestius  attacked  and  re- 
pulsed the  Hebrews  and  advanced  to  Scopus,  forty-nine 
hundred  feet  distant  from  the  city.  Four  days  later,  the 
thirtieth  day  of  Tlshri^  he  took  Bezetha.  and  set  it  on  fire, 
and  had  arriveil  before  the  northern  wall,  oj)i)osite  the  royal 
palace.  His  adjutants  advised  him  not  to  attempt  the  as- 
sault, and  he  desisted.  An  invitation  from  some  leaders  in 
Jerusalem  under  Ananus  b.  Jonathan,  to  take  possession  of 
tlie  city  by  a  gate  to  be  opened  for  him,  was  also  refused. 
The  intended  treachery  of  Ananus  was  discovered,  and  he 
was  hurled  down  over  the  wall.  After  considerable  delay, 
an  attack  was  made  on  the  wall,  and  repeated  on  five  suc- 
cessive days  without  any  efiect.  On  the  sixth  day  an 
attack  on  the  northern  wall  of  the  temple  was  also  unsuc- 
cessful. The  Romans  had  commenced  to  undermine  that 
wall,  whicli  created  a  momentary  panic  in  the  city.  However, 
Cestius,  weakened  as  his  army  was,  began  to  retreat  to  his 
camp  at  Scopus.  He  was  immediately  pursued  by  the  be- 
sieged, and  attacked  in  the  rear  and  flanks  by  archers.  So 
the  Romans  were  fought  all  the  way  back,  also  to  Gabao, 
Avhere  they  arrived  in  disorder  after  a  severe  loss  in  men 


PRELUDES   TO   THE    WAR.  329 

and  baggage.  Their  mules  were  killed,  and  the  march  con- 
tinued to  Beth-Horon,  which  they  reached  in  despair  ;  half 
of  the  Roman  army  had  been  slain  and  destruction  threat- 
ened the  other  half.  It  was  by  strategy  that  Cestius  out- 
witted the  Hebrews  and,  during  the  night,  got  a  consider- 
able distance  ahead  of  them  before  they  discovered  his 
flight.  They  pursued  the  wreck  of  the  invading  army  to 
Anti]jatris  and  then  returned  in  triumph  to  Jerusalem. 
Nearly  ten  thousand  Romans  had  lost  their  lives  in  a  few 
days,  the  whole  camp  equipage,  war  engines,  arms,  provis- 
ions and  money,  which  Cestius  had  in  his  train,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Hebrews.  The  whole  land  re-echoed  their 
shouts  of  triumph,  the  victory  was  great,  the  land  was  ap- 
parently rescued  from  the  clutches  of  a  hated  invader. 


330  THE    FIRST    PERIOD   OF   THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


The  First  Period  of  tJie  War  {67  and  68  A.  C). 


1.    The  Moderate  Party  Victorious. 

After  his  defeat,  Cestius  Gallus  returned  to  Antioch,  re- 
ported his  disaster  to  Rome,  and  fell  sick.  An  embassy  of 
loyal  Hebrews  was  sent  to  Achia  to  defend  the  party  of 
obedience  before  Nero,  and  to  lay  all  the  blame  on  Florus 
and  his  outrages.  But  the  emperor  was  most  ridiculously 
engaged  in  public  games,  and  a  momentary  suspension  of 
hostilities  followed  in  Judea.  The  victory  achieved  over 
the  Romans  made  the  Zealots,  for  a  Avhile,  masters  of  the 
situation.  They  insisted  upon  raising  the  standard  of  in- 
dependence. The  doctrine  of  Judah  of  Galilee,  that  it  was  a 
shame  and  crime  to  be  subject  or  to  pay  tribute  to  any  for- 
eign potentate,  was  the  parole  of  the  part}',  and  its  resolu- 
tion was  to  tight  the  enemy  to  the  bitter  end  of  liberty  or 
death.  They  pointed  to  numerous  events,  especially  to  the 
records  of  the  Maccabees,  when  God  protected  Israel's  cause 
by  a  mere  handful  of  resolute  and  patriotic  warriors,  and 
maintained  that  what  had  happened  so  often  might  occur 
once  more  to  men  of  courage  and  patriotism,  if  they  put 
their  trust  in  the  same  God  and  in  the  holy  cause  of  Israel. 
But  if  the  worst  should  come,  it  is  better  to  die  for  a  boh' 
cause  than  to  live  a  slave  or  a  renegade.  The  Romans,  they 
maintained,  had  defied  the  HebreAvs'  laws,  rights,  liberties  and 
religion  ;  the  worst  that  could  possibly  be  done  Avas  to  submit 
any  longer  to  the  oppressive  usurpation.  The  other  ex- 
treme party,  however,  fearing  the  vengeance  of  Rome,  fol- 
lowed the  defeated  Romans  to  Antioch  or  went  to  the  dis- 
tant western  settlements  of  the  Roman  Empire,  especially 
to  Spain  (1).     The  moderate  party  could  no  longer  prevent 

(1)    Mishnah  Baba  Bathra  iii.  2.     Any  vacant  estate  of  such  emi. 


THE    FIRST   PERIOD    OF   THE    WAR.  331 

"the  war,  and  opposed  only  its  main  object.  A  defensive 
war,  to  obtain  more  favorable  conditions  from  Rome  for  the 
Palestinean  Republic,  and  to  remain,  nevertheless,  loyal  to 
the  empire,  Avas  their  object.  This  party  comprised  most 
■of  the  priestly  and  lay  aristocracy,  the  prominent  states- 
men and  doctors,  and  all  those  who  liked  to  be  Romans  and 
Israelites.  Under  the  prevailing  excitement  and  roused 
spirit  of  liberty,  it  was  dangerous  to  express  moderate 
views ;  and  so  this  party  was  obliged,  momentarily,  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Zealots.  Still  those  leaders  understood  how  to 
manage  the  populace  so  well,  that  the  most  important 
•offices  were  filled  by  the  men  of  their  choice.  The  doctors 
of  the  Hillel  and  Shammai  schools  contributed  largely  to 
the  i:)atriotic  enthusiasm  by  enactments  and  harangues,  and 
■especially  by  writing  popular  books  on  the  Maccabees  and 
iheir  combats  against  Syria ;  so  that  the  heroic  figures  of  a 
glorious  past  loomed  up  in  the  excited  imagination,  and 
stimulated  emulation. 

2.     Organization  of  the  Defense. 

The  reorganization  of  the  Sanhedrin  as  the  central 
authority  was  the  first  step  taken  to  govern  and  defend  the 
country.  Simon  b.  Ganiliel,  the  great-grandson  of  Hillel, 
had  been  at  the  head  of  that  body  since  52  a.  c,  although 
it  had  been  powerless.  It  was  now  restored  to  its  lawful 
place  and  powers  under  its  legitimate  Nassi.  The  country 
was  divided  into  seven  districts,  viz. :  1.  Perea,  east  of  the 
Jordan,  from  Macherus  in  the  south  to  Gadara  in  the  north  ; 
2.  Upper  and  Lower  Idumea,  between  the  Dead  Sea  and 
the  Mediterranean  in  the  extreme  south.  North  thereof 
were :  3.  District  of  Jericho,  4.  Of  Jerusalem,  and  5. 
Of  Thamna,  between  the  Jordan  and  the  Mediterranean. 
North  thereof  were  :  6..  District  Acrabatene,  covering  the 
pass  between  the  Jordan  and  the  central  mountains,  the 
■communication  with  Galilee ;  on  the  other  side  of  which 
was  the  part  of  Samaria  held  by  the  Romans  ;  and  7.  Up- 
per and  Lower  Galilee,  which  had  revolted  from  Agrippa 
II.,  and  made  common  cause  with  the  nation.  The  following 
governors  were  appointed  for  the  various  districts  :  Ananus 
and  Joseph  b.  Gorion,  both  descendants  of  highpriests,  were 
appointed  Governors  of  Jerusalem  with  the  special  charge 


grants  the  law  secured  to  the  occupant  after  an  undisputed  possession 
thereof  of  three  consecutive  years,  provided  the  owner  was  in  any 
foreign  country  or  the  property  was  not  at  all  claimed  within  the 
three  years. 


332  THE    FIRST    rKRIOI)    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  fortifying  luid  provisioning  tho  city.  Ananus  (2)  was  the 
actual  President  of  tlie  .Sanhedvin  and  chief-ruler  of  the 
land.  Manasseh  was  appointed  for  Perea.  Eleazar  b. 
Ananus,  the  principal  agitator  and  soldier,  and  Jesus  b. 
Sapphias,  both  descendants  of  highpriests,  were  sent  to 
Idumea  to  govern  the  district  conjointly  with  Niger,  its- 
officiating  governor.  Joseph  b.  8inion  was  appointed  for 
Jericho,  and  John,  the  Essene,  for  Thamna,  which  included 
Joi)pa,  Lydda  and  Enmiaus.  Joseph  (Flavius,  the  histo- 
rian) 1).  Mattbias  was  appointed  Governor  of  Galilee,  and 
John  h.  Matthias,  of  Acrabatene.  The  chief  men  were 
aristocratic  priests  of  no  military  fame  and,  perhaps,  like 
Josephus,  young  men  without  practical  experience.  AIL 
these  military  governors  were  charged  Avith  the  duties  of 
enforcing  the  law,  organizing  the  militia,  fortifying  the 
cities,  and  obeying  the  Sanhedrin  and  central  authority 
in  Jerusalem.  The  leaders  of  the  actual  Zealots  and  ex- 
treme war  party,  it  appears,  were  excluded  from  the  highest 
executive  offices  (3)  or  put  under  the  control  of  colleagues^ 
as  was  the  case  with  Eleazar  b.  Ananus.  The  moderate 
part}^  was  master  of  the  situation.  Still  the  governors  and 
people  of  Jerusalem  went  to  work  with  energy  and  enthusi- 
asm. The  fortifications  of  the  city  were  repaired,  strength- 
ened and  enlarged ;  provisions  were  stored  in  the  city ; 
arms  were  forged  in  all  shops,  and  all  able-bodied  men  were 
armed  and  drilled,  so  that  the  whole  city  became  one  large 
fortified  camp,  where  hoary  men,  women  and  lads  vied  with 
valiant  men  in  patriotism,  enthusiasm  and  love  of  lib- 
erty (4). 

(2)  This  R  Hananiah  is  also  reported  in  Sipiiri  (Naso  42)  to  have 
said:  "  Peace  is  as  weighty  as  the  rest  of  God's  creation."  Dlb'J'"  ^Hl 

(:5)  Josephus  does  not  mention  the  name  of  Simon  b.  Gorion,  who 
was  appointed  to  some  lower  command,  it  appears,  at  Acrabatene. 

(4)  It  is  not  known  who  had  a  seat  in  that  Sanhedrin.  B.'sides 
Simon  b.  Gaudiel,  Joclianan  b.  Saccai,  President  and  Viee-President, 
none  is  mentioned  1)y  name  except  Aristeus  of  Emmaus,  who  was 
one  of  its  scribes  (Josej)hus'  Wars  v.,  xiii.  1).  The  disciples  of  R. 
Joehanan  conld  have  no  seat  in  the  Sanhedrin  with  their  master. 
Ananus,  the  principal  Governor  of  Jerusalem,  and  virtually  the  head 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  appears  to  Ijo  identical  with  R.  CnvxiNAU  Skgan 
HAK-Kon.\Ni.M  of  the  Mishnah,  whose  policy  is  expressed  in  hia 
Minhmih  (A BOTH  iii.  2):  "Pray  for  the  peace  of  the  government." 
His  sou,  R.  Simon  b.  Has-segan,  was  prominent  in  the  next  genera- 
tion. Joshua  1).  Gamala,  ex-highpriest  (Josephus'  Life,  41),  R.  Za- 
dok,  who  fasted  forty  years  that  the  temjtle  might  not  be  destroyed, 
R.  Necliunia  b  Ilak-kanah,  Nachuni  Ham-modai,  and  all  the  })romi- 
nent  teachers  which  are  counted  among  the  "First  Generation  of  the 


the  first  period  of  the  war.  333 

3.     Defeat  at  Ascalon. 

The  governors  repaired  to  the  various  districts  to  carry 
out  the  orders  of  the  Sanhedrin.  To  recover  the  seaports 
was  the  first  object  to  be  achieved.  Therefore,  three  valiant 
leaders,  Niger,  of  Idumea,  John,  the  Essene,  and  Silas,  the 
Bablylonian,  led  an  expedition  to  capture  Ascalon.  Their 
intention  was  betrayed,  and  the  Roman  commander  in  that 
city,  Antonius,  gave  them  a  Marm  reception.  The  impetu- 
osity and  valor  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  open  field  proved  in- 
adequate against  the  armament,  tactics  and  coolness  of 
Roman  veterans,  especially  the  cavalry,  against  which  the 
Hebrews  could  not  protect  themselves;  so  they  were  disas- 
trously defeated  under  the  walls  of  Ascalon.  John  and 
Silas,  with  several  thousand  of  their  men,  lost  their  lives 
in  that  battle,  and  Niger  retreated  into  Sallis  in  Idumea. 
Shortly  after  he  made  another  attack  upon  Ascalon  and 
was  defeated  again.  He  and  many  of  his  warriors  sought 
refuge  in  the  tower  of  Bezedel,  which  the  pursuing  Romans 
set  on  fire  and  then  withdrew.  Niger  and  some  of  his  men 
were  saved,  however,  in  a  subterranean  passage.  This  was 
the  first  disaster,  and  a  very  ominous  one,  because  it  proved 
the  inability  of  the  Hebrews  to  cope  with  the  Romans  in 
the  open  field  or  to  wrest  the  seaports  from  them. 

4.     Simon  b.  Gorion. 

Shortly  after,  one  of  the  most  daring  and  violent  parti- 
sans, Simon  b.  Gorion,  who,  like  others  of  his  party,  sus- 
pected and  disliked  the  men  in  power,  succeeded  in  collect- 
ing a  band  of  guerrillas  in  Southern  Idujtiea,  and  moved 
northward  to  put  himself  and  his  party  in  power,  ravaging 
the  country  as  he  advanced.  Ananus  sent  an  adequate 
force  from  Jerusalem  to  check  him.  He  evaded  it  and  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  Masada,  near  the  Dead  Sea  west,  which 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  extreme  Zealots,  commanded  by 
Eleazar  b.  Jairus.  This  was  another  ominous  disaster.  It 
roused  the  suspicion  of  the  extremists  against  the  mode- 
rates and  opened  the  horrid  fountain  of  civil  war  and  self- 
destruction.  The  hostilities  of  Simon  b.  Gorion  were  effect- 
ively continued  from  Masada,  as  shall  be  narrated  hereafter. 

5.    Josephus  in  Galilee. 

Galilee  was,  at  this  moment,  the  most  important  portion 
of  Palestine,  because  it  was  the  most  populous  and  most 

Tena'im,"  may  have  been  members  of  that  Sanhedrin,  but  it  is  not 
stated  expressly  that  they  were. 


334  THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OF    THE    WAR. 

loyal  district,  and  the  enemy  was  obliged  to  come  through 
that  mountainous  countr}-,  whicii  a  skilled  and  experienced 
general  could  have  defended  longer  than  the  Romans  were 
prepared  to  wage  war.  One  telling  victory  in  Galilee  might 
have  roused  the  Parthians  and  the  petty  princes  of  the  East 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Habrews.  But  Galilee  was  gov- 
erned by  Josephus,  who  was  too  voung  for  the  position,  had 
no  experience  in  warfare,  was  the  friend  of  Agrippa  II.,  and 
an  admirer  of  Rome.  He  tells  us  in  his  autobiography  that 
he  was  a  descendant  of  Jonathan  the  Asmonean,  by  one  of 
his  daughters,  hence  of  the  highest  aristocracy  of  the  land; 
that  his  father,  Matthias,  was  a  distinguished  citizen  of 
Jerusalem ;  and  that  he  was  very  successful  in  the  schools 
of  all  sects,  especially  of  the  Pharisees,  whose  cause  he 
espoused  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  He  was  born  37  a,  c,  and 
up  to  his  twenty-sixth  year  had  done  nothing  to  dis- 
tinguish himself,  although  he  was  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished scholars  in  the  Greek  as  well  as  in  the  national  lit- 
erature. In  the  year  63  a.  c,  he  went  to  Rome  to  liberate 
the  priests  sent  there  by  the  Procurator  and  kept  as  cap- 
tives. He  was  shipwrecked,  and  with  eighty  men  out  of 
six  hundred,  saved  his  life  and  reached  Puteoli.  A  Hebrew 
stage  actor,  Aliturius,  introduced  him  to  Poppea ;  and  he 
succeeded  in  liberating  those  priests  and  in  being  deeply 
impressed  with  the  glory  and  power  of  Rome.  On  his  re- 
turn to  Jerusalem,  he  always  sided  with  the  peace  party 
and  the  friends  of  Rome.  After  the  defeat  of  Cestius  Gal- 
lus  and  the  slaughter  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  various  cities 
of  Syria,  he,  like  his  compatriots,  disguised  his  real  opin- 
ions and  intentions  and  espoused  the  cause  of  the  mode- 
rate party.  When  he  was  about  thirty  years  old,  without 
having  any  military  record,  he,  with  two  legates,  was  sent 
to  Galilee  as  governor  of  that  important  province,  and  came 
to  his  post  more  with  the  intention  of  disarming  the  vete- 
ran enemies  of  Rome  and  Agrippa  II.,  in  order  to  obtain  an. 
honorable  peace,  than  to  win  the  independence  of  his  people. 
"  My  first  care  was,"  says  Josephus,  "  to  keep  Galilee  in 
peace  "  (Life  14),  in  which  he  proved  a  shrewd  and  resolute 
man,  a  man  of  courage  and  circumspection.  He  made 
compacts  Avith  the  so-called  robbers,  and  paid  them  wages 
to  remain  inactive  in  their  mountain  fastnesses  and  make 
no  expeditions ;  also  not  against  the  Romans,  unless  called 
upon  to  do  so.  He  asked  seventy  hostages  of  the  princi- 
pal parties  in  the  revolt,  kept  them  about  himself  as  a  sort 
of  Sanhedrin,  and  established  the  authority  of  the  law  in 
the  revolted  districts  and  cities.     He  succeeded  admirably 


THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OF    THE    WAR.  335 

in  making  peace,  and  was  always  eager  to  imitate  Moses 
and  to  enforce  his  laws.  He  was  soon  suspected  of  treason. 
For,  arrived  at  Sepphoris,  he  sided  at  once  witl^  the  Roman 
party  in  that  city,  protected  it  against  the  threatened  attack 
of  the  patriots  from  without,  left  both  the  city  and  its  forti- 
fications in  the  hands  of  Roman  partisans  ;  and  this  was 
one  of  the  most  important  strategic  points  of  Galilee. 
Here  the  first  blow  was  struck  in  the  coming  \^ar.  He  did 
no  better  in  Tiberias,  near  which,  in  Bethmaus,  he  had 
fixed  his  residence.  This  city  having  but  recently  declared 
against  Agrippa  II.  and  embraced  the  national  cause,  had 
its  political  parties,  one  of  which  was  opposed  to  the  inno- 
vation, and  with  the  leaders  of  that  very  party  Josephus 
consulted  first.  He  had  brought  the  decree  of  the  Sanhed- 
rin  to  the  people  of  Tiberias  to  take  out  of  Agrippa's  palace 
all  the  ornaments  and  furniture,  as  some  of  them  repre- 
sented idols.  Still  finding  the  Agrippa  partisans  opposed 
to  it,  he  proposed  to  send  all  valuables  taken  from  the 
palace  to  Agrippa,  who  was  then  the  declared  enemy  of  the 
country.  The  people  of  Tiberias  revolted,  the  governor  ran 
away  to  Upper  Galilee,  and  a  number  of  Agrippa  partisans 
were  slain  before  the  decree  of  the  Sanhedrin  was  enforced. 
Worse  than  this  he  behaved  in  the  Dabaritta  case.  A  lady 
of  Agrippa's  court  had  the  afFrontery  to  travel  through  the 
revolted  district  in  royal  pomp  and  display.  The  soldiers 
of  Dabaritta  captured  her,  took  all  her  valuables,  and  let 
her  go  in  peace.  The  spoil  was  brought  to  Josej^hus  and  he 
promised  to  send  it  to  Jerusalem  to  be  applied  to  the  forti- 
fication of  the  capital ;  but  he  at  once  informed  the  king's 
confidants  that  he  would  send  him  the  whole  spoil.  This 
being  betrayed,  became  the  cause  of  a  formidable  revolt, 
and  might  have  cost  the  life  of  Josephus,  if  he  had  not  ex- 
tricated himself  by  a  cunning  fabrication  of  falsehoods, 
and  finally,  by  a  villainous  treatment  of  his  fiercest  oppo- 
nents. He  protected  those  who  Avere  considered  spies  and 
enemies  of  the  country  (Life  31),  although  it  was  known 
that  the  partisans  of  Agrippa  were  in  continual  corre- 
spondence with  him,  and  Josephus  boasts  of  sixty-three 
letters  of  Agrippa  to  himself  He  betrayed  his  own  incli- 
nation and  feelings  too  freely  to  escape  detection,  so  that 
all  Galilee  was  filled  with  the  rumor,  he  narrates,  that  their 
country  was  about  to  be  betrayed  by  him  to  the  Romans 
(Life  27).  His  intentions,  like  those  of  his  party,  to  pre- 
vent the  war,  were  certainly  patriotic  in  his  and  their  opin- 
ions. But  he  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  and  its 
champions,  which  he  had  ofiicially   espoused ;  was  obliged 


S36  THE    I'lKST   PKKIOU    OF    TlIK    WAR. 

to  play  a  double  game,  and  could  not  escape  suspicion  and 
hatred.  The  military  preparations  of  Josephus  proved  a 
decided  failure.  He  fortified,  as  he  narrates  (Life  37), 
Gamala  on  the  Lake,  a  number  of  places  in  Gaulonitis, 
which  liad  revolted  from  Agrippa,  and  built  walls  around 
Seleucia  and  Soganni.  He  also  built  walls  around  cities 
and  villages  in  Upper  Galilee,  especially  Jamnia,  Meroth 
and  Achabare.  In  Lower  Galilee  he  fortified,  or  rather  per- 
mitted the  fortifying  of  Tarichaia,  Tiberias,  Gischala,  the  cave 
of  Arbela,  Bersobe,  Selamin,  Jotapata,  Ca])hareccho,  Sigo, 
Jepha  and  Mount  Tabor.  However,  notwithstanding  the 
death-defying  heroism  of  the  defenders  of  those  places,  not 
one  of  the  hnrriedly -constructed  fortifications  withstood, 
successfully,  the  Roman  attacks.  When  the  enemy  ap- 
proached in  force,  Josephus  provided  the  cities  with  arms 
and  provisions  and  organized  the  militia.  Two  hundred 
thousand  men  were  enrolled  and  four  hundred  thousand 
men  could  have  been  enrolled  ;  half  of  them  were  kept  in 
garrisons  and  drilled  in  the  use  of  arms  and  submission  to 
discipline.  That  which  was  most  necessary,  to  organize 
and  drill  an  army  to  cope  with  the  Romans  in  the  open 
field,  and  to  make  proper  use  of  the  advantages  of  the  Gal- 
ilean terrain,  was  not  at  all  attempted ;  on  the  contrary, 
those  so-called  robbers,  the  most  available  forces  for  this 
purpose,  and  the  veteran  fighting  men  of  the  country,  were 
partly  disarmed  and  partly  kept  under  pay  and  oath  not  to 
fight.  Wlien  the  enemy  did  come,  the  defending  forces 
were  scattered  all  over  the  land  in  the  fortified  placeS;  Avith- 
■out  any  plan  of  co-operation.  The  military  preparations 
of  Josephus  were  intended  to  make  peace  and  not  to  make 
war.  It  will  always  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  it  was  in- 
ability or  unwillingness  to  defend  the  country  efficiently, 
which  must  be  charged  on  Josephus  and  his  party  in  Jeru- 
salem (5). 

(5)  However  eminent  a  scholar  and  historian  he  Mas,  and  his  eru- 
dition was  great,  like  his  historic )grapliic  talent,  he  was  not  honest  in 
liis  luinative  of  the  last  war  and  the  presentation  of  his  opponents. 
When  alter  his  "  Wars,"  etc.,  had  been  written  under  the  eyes  of 
Titus  and  Agrippa  in  Rome,  and  Justus  of  Ti))erias  and  several  others 
(Life  ()•'))  had  also  written  the  sauie  history  without  beiug  under  ob- 
ligations to  Titus  or  Agrippa,  Josephus  wrote  his  "Life,"  in  which 
many  of  his  statements  in  his  "Wars"  are  considerably  modified, 
and  appear  in  an  entirely  different  light.  Those  works  must  have 
considerably  damaged  the  narrative  of  Josepiius  and  his  partisan 
standpoint.  Tiie  student  must  control  his  statements  made  in  his 
"  Wars"  by  those  made  in  liis  "Life,"  and  must  bear  in  mind  that 
he  wrote  in  the  palace  of  the  Ca;sar.s. 


the  first  period  of  the  war.  337 

6.     The  Opponents  of  Josephus. 

Most  prominent  among  the  opponents  of  Josephus  in 
Oalilee  was  John  of  Gischala,  called  John  b.  Levi.  He 
wab  the  friend  and  companion  of  tlie  Nassi,  Simon  b.  Gam- 
liel  (Life  ob),  and  the  most  competent  man  of  the  war  party 
(Wars  ii.,  xxi.).  He,  perhaps,  was  not  the  first  to  suspect 
the  want  of  ability  or  hdelity  of  Josephus,  still  he  was  the 
lirst  to  say  so  to  the  Sanhedrin  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  i^ro- 
pose  the  removal  of  Josephus  from  the  responsible  office. 
John  sent  his  brother,  Simon,  with  Jonathan  b.  Sisenna  and 
one  hundred  armed  delegates,  to  Jerusalem.  They  suc- 
ceeded in  convincing  the  Nassi,  who  was  already  opposed 
to  Josephus,  that  Josephus  should  be  removed  from  office. 
The  Nassi  convinced  Ananus  and  his  advisers  that  this 
ought  to  be  done  speedily.  A  commission  of  four  distin- 
guished men  was  appointed,  sufficient  money  and  an  armed 
force  placed  at  their  disposal,  to  send  Josephus  to  Jeru- 
salem, if  he  would  obey  voluntarih',  or  to  kill  him  if  he  of- 
fered resistance  to  the  decree  of  the  central  authority. 
Josephus,  informed  of  the  decree,  refused  to  obey.  Both 
parties  fearing  the  outbreak  of  a  civil  Avar  if  an  attempt 
should  be  made  to  settle  the  matter  by  the  force  of  arms, 
maneuvered  against  each  other  for  a  considerable  time. 
Josephus  outmaneuvered  the  commission,  and  it  failed  to 
enforce  the  decree.  Josephus  and  his  party  in  Galilee  were 
now  virtually  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  central 
authority  in  Jerusalem.  He  went  to  Tiberias  and  assem- 
bled his  "friends  to  a  Sanhedrin  (Life  66)  and  consulted  as  to 
what  he  should  do  to  John  of  Gischala.  They  advised  war 
upon  him,  which  Josephus  was  not  prepared  to  undertake. 
He  offered  amnesty  to  all  of  John's  men  who  would  at  once 
return  to  their  allegiance  to  him,  which  necessitated  John 
to  remain  quiet  in  Gischala,  and  Josephus  remained  Gover- 
nor of  Galilee  by  usurpation.  However,  not  all  submitted 
quietly.  A  party  in  the  two  capitals,  Tiberias  and  Sep- 
phoris^,  made  the  attempt  to  have  Josephus  deposed.  The 
people  of  Tiberias  were  determined  that  the  decree  of  the 
central  authority  in  Jerusalem  should  be  enforced.  Justus 
b.  Pistus,  known  as  Justus  of  Tiberias,  the  historian,  it 
appears,  was  the  prime  mover  in  this  matter.  However, 
Josephus  came,  with  eleven  thousand  men,  against  the  city 
to  enforce  his  authority ;  a  civil  war  was  feared  })y  its 
rulers,  and  they  submitted  to  his  authority.  Shortly  after, 
however,  the  king's  party  got  the  upper  hand  in  that  city; 
chosing  the  least  between  two  evils,  Agrippa  was  invited  by 


338  THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OF   THE    WAR. 

Justus  to  take  possession  of  the  city.  The  king  was  too 
slow,  his  messenger  was  caught  and  brought  before  Jose- 
phus,  who,  by  strategy,  took  Tiberias  and  again  enforced  his 
authority  ;  then  he  let  the  king's  messenger  escape  unpun- 
ished. In  Sepphoris,  too,  no  sooner  had  it  become  known 
that  Josephus  was  deposed  by  the  central  authority  than 
the  rulers  sent  messengers  to  the  President  of  Syria,  and 
asked  of  him  to  come  instantly  or  to  send  them  a  protect- 
ing garrison.  Cestius  Gallus  could,  at  that  moment,  do 
neither,  and  Josephus  took  Sepphoris;  his  men  ransacked 
the  city  till  he  got  them  out  of  it  by  a  false  alarm  of  ap- 
proaching Romans.  Josephus,  in  his  autobiography,  nar- 
rates all  this  in  his  own  defense  against  Justus  and  the 
other  historians,  and  certainly  reported  the  facts  as  favor- 
ably to  himself  as  he  possibly  could.  Nevertheless,  they 
proved  conclusively  that  he  Avas  lawfully  deposed,  that  a 
large  portion  of  the  people  wanted  him  to  obey,  and  he,  by 
unlawful  means,  continued  to  hold  the  office  for  which  he 
had  neither  the  ability  and  experience  nor  the  heart  and 
sympathy,  and  became,  as  Justus  said  of  him,  the  main 
cause  of  Israel's  disaster.  Before  the  legates  of  the  San- 
hedrin  came  back  to  Jerusalem  to  report,  it  was  too  late ; 
for  the  war  had  been  commenced  by  Josephus  himself. 
Cestius  Gallus  had  sent  Placidus,  with  seven  thousand  men, 
to  assist  Sejiphoris,  and  Josephus  attempted  to  take  the 
city  by  storm.  After  he  had  partially  succeeded  in  this 
attempt,  he  Avas  driven  out  again  and  forced  to  a  battle  in 
the  plain,  which  he  lost,  and  the  Romans  remained  in  pos- 
session of  Sepphoris.  At  the  same  time,  some  of  Agrippa's- 
forces,  under  Sylla,  approached  the  northern  shore  of  the 
lake,  and  encamped  before  Julias,  holding  the  roads  toCana 
and  Gamala.  Josephus  attacked  and  routed  the  king's 
forces,  but  could  not  follow  np  his  victory  because  he  was 
thrown  from  his  horse  and  had  to  be  brouglit  to  Caper- 
naum. He  was  then  removed  to  Tarichsea,  where  he  was  at- 
tacked and  routed  by  Sylla.  Ho  saved  his  men  and  him- 
self b}'  a  sudden  move  on  Julias,  to  come  into  the  rear  of 
the  enemy,  who  was  thus  obliged  to  retreat.  So  the  war 
had  commenced  with  two  defeats  for  Josephus,  and  mean- 
while, Vesj)asian  had  come  to  Tyre  ready  to  tal:e  the  fiold. 
It  was  too  late  eith.er  for  Josephus  to  resign  or  for  the  San- 
hedrin  to  remove  him  from  office.  Justus  of  Tiberias,  was 
with  Agrippa  in  Tyre.  He  was  accused  before  Vespasian 
by  people  of  Dccapolis  for  having  burnt  their  villages  and 
condemning  mnny  to  death;  but  Agrippa  saved  him  and 
he  was  put  in  irons  for  some  time. 


the  first  period  of  the  war.  339 

7.     Defeat  of  Placidus  Before  Jotapata. 

From  Sepphoris,  Placidus  made  expeditions  into  the 
country,  slaying  the  defenseless,  plundering  and  burning 
as  he  proceeded.  The  people  fled  into  the  fortified  cities. 
He  proceeded  as  far  north  as  Jotapata,  which  he  schemed 
to  take  by  surprise.  The  defenders  of  that  city,  however^ 
received  him  outside  of  their  fortifications,  gave  him  battle^ 
and  forced  him  to  retreat  with  considerable  loss.  The 
heavy  armament  of  the  Romans  saved  them.  They 
marched  back  to  Sepphoris.  and  Josephus  had  no  army 
there  to  molest  them.  Sepphoris  and  the  rich  plain  at  the 
sea  side  were  lost  to  the  national  cause,  although  the  people 
of  Jotapata  heroically  defended  their  city,  and  the  fate  of 
Galilee  was  virtually  decided  before  the  arrival  of  Vespasian. 

8.     Vespasian  and  Titus  in  Palestine. 

"When  Nero  had  learned  the  defeat  of  Cestius,  he  was 
alarmed.  The  loss  of  the  Asiatic  portion  of  the  empire 
appeared  certain,  if  the  Hebrews  overthrew  the  Roman 
power  in  their  land.  He  summoned  the  man  whom  he 
most  disliked  among  his  generals,  because  he  had  fallen 
asleep  wlien  Nero  recited  his  own  poetical  productions, 
Titus  Flavins  Vcspasianus,  and  appointed  him  commander- 
in-chief  of  a  large  and  picked  army  to  subject  and  crush 
Palestine.  The  founder  of  the  second  Roman  dynasty  was 
of  humble  origin.  He  had  distinguished  himself  as  a  sol- 
dier in  Thrace,  Africa,  Germany  and  Britain,  and  especially 
in  forcing  the  Roman  yoke  on  free-born  men.  With  Ves- 
pasian, came  also  his  son,  Titus,  to  Ptolemais  (in  the  spring 
of  the  year  63  a.  c),  where  tlie  army  of  invasion  was  organ- 
ized, while  JIucianus  succeeded  Cestius  Gallus  as  President 
of  Syria.  The  army  consisted  of  the  Fifth,  Tenth  and  Fif- 
teenth Legions,  with  a  large  quota  of  cavalry,  augmented 
by  the  armies  of  the  surrounding  petty  princes,  Agrippa 
II.  included,  to  the  number  of  60,000  regulars,  and  a  large 
number  of  irregulars,  who  always  went  with  tlie  Roman 
armies  as  traders  of  all  kinds  when  their  miltary  service 
was  not  needed.  It  was  supported  in  Palestine  by  the 
Heathen  population  and  many  Hebrews  who  remained 
loyal  to  Rome.  The  main  strength  of  that  army  was  in  its 
heavy  armament  and  scientific  discipline,  the  skill  and  ex- 
perience of  its  officers,  the  utter  heartlessness,  brutality^ 
rapacity,  bloodthirstiness  and  blind  obedience  of  its  sol- 
diers, and  the  hatred  of  the  Heathens  against  the  Hebrews. 
But  all  these  combined  forces  might  have  been  overcome,  if 


340  THE    FIU!>T    I'KUrOl)    OF    THE    WAU 

tlie  Hebrews  had  been  united  in  the  resolution  to  shake  oir 
the  Roman  yoke,  and  tlie  men  of  decisive  action,  instead  of 
those  who  wanted  to  win  a  patched-up.  peace,  had  been 
from  tlie  start  at  the  head  of  the  revolution.  Their  patriot- 
ism, zeal  and  bravery  were  certainly  adequate  to  the  emer- 
gency. 

9.    The  Fall  of  Gadara. 

Without  any  molestation,  Vespasian  marched  from  Ptol- 
emais  to  Gadara  (Gabara),  situated  between  Giscala  and 
Jotapata,  and  took  it  without  resistance,  because  its  de- 
fenders had  left  it  at  the  approach  of  the  enemy.  The 
defenseless  inhabitants,  lads,  women,  children  and  old  peo- 
ple, were  mercilessly  massacred,  the  city  and  the  villages 
around  it  were  pillaged  and  burnt.  Only  those  persons 
were  spared  who  were  considered  saleable  as  slaves ;  all  the 
others  perished  {Nissan  Q'i  a.  d.).  The  barbarities  of  the 
invader  roused  the  Zealots  to  fury  and  prompted  Josephus 
to  leave  his  post  in  Tiberias,  as  under  the  circumstances, 
his  life  must  have  been  in  danger.  He  locked  himself  up 
with  his  men  in  Jotapata,  which  he  must  have  known  to  be 
the  next  objective  point  of  the  enemy,  simply  because  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  win,  surrender  or  die.  He  sent 
messengers  to  Jerusalem  to  inform  the  central  authority 
that  unless  they  sent  him  an  army  he  could  not  success- 
fully defend  Galilee.  The  army  was  not  sent  and  Galilee 
was  lost. 

10.    Jotapata  and  Josephus  Taken. 

Early  in  the  month  of  Iyai\  Josephus  had  arrived  in 
Jotapata,  and  shortly  after,  Vespasian  surrounded  the  city. 
It  offered  a  desperate  and  well-conducted  resistance.  Dur- 
ing the  siege  of  Jotapata,  one  detachment  of  the  Roman 
army  took  the  neighboring  city  of  Japha  (25th  of  Slvan)^ 
and  another  defeated  the  Samaritans  on  Mt.  Gerizzim  (•27th 
of  Sivan),  pillaging,  burning  and  slaughtering  or  selling 
into  slavery  without  regard  to  age  or  sex,  as  had  been  done 
in  Gadara.  Meanwhile,  the  defenders  of  Jotapata,  by  a 
siege  of  fort3'-seven  days,  were  so  exhausted  that  they 
could  offer  no  effectual  resistance  to  an  attacking  army.  A 
deserter  informed  Vespasian  thereof,  and  during  the  next 
night,  which  was  foggy  and  dark,  his  men  succeeded  in  scal- 
ing the  wall,  taking  the  citadel  and  cutting  down  all  who 
were  in  the  city  (1st  of  Tannuz).  The  city  was  demolished 
and  its  fortifications  burned.     Forty  thousand  Hebrews  lost 


THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OP    THE    WAR.  341 

their  lives  in  and  about  Jotapata.  However,  among  those 
who  had  sought  refuge  in  subterranean  hiding-phices,  there 
was  also  Josephus,  with  one  hundred  men,  in  a  den  adjoin- 
ing a  deep  pit.  Escape  being  impossible,  those  hundred 
men  and  Josephus  resolved  to  slay  one  another.  Josephus 
knew  how  to  manage  the  afi'air  so  that  he  and  Kicanor  were 
to  die  last.  Ninety-nine  died  the  voluntary  death,  then 
Josephus  and  Nicanor  escaped  and  delivered  themselves  up 
to  Vespasian.  Before  Vespasian,  he  played  the  role  of  a 
prophet,  he  says,  predicting  to  him  that  he  would  be  the  next 
em])eror  of  Rome  (6),  which  prophecy  the  Talmud  claims 
for  R.  Jochanan  b.  Saccai.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  why 
Vespasian  spared  the  man  who  had  always  been  a  friend  of 
the  Romans,  and  had  done  his  best  to  deliver  Giililee  up  to 
their  authority.  From  and  after  this  day,  Josejdius  re- 
mained among  the  Romans  as  an  informer,  the  Hebrews 
maintained;  in  chains  and  as  a  pleader  and  pacificator,  he 
maintains.  His  foes  and  friends  at  home  denounced  him  as 
a  traitor,  who  had  never  intended  to  fight  the  Romans.  He 
went  to  Jotapata  to  be  captured,  as  he  could  no  longer 
maintain  himself  in  Galilee,  and  could  not  return  to  Jeru- 
salem. He  made  such  a  heroic  defense  there,  because  he 
dared  not  do  otherwise,  as  he  feared  his  own  warriors.  He 
prophesied  the  fall  of  the  city  many  days  before  it  took 
place,  hence  he  knew  the  object  of  his  coming  to  Jotapata. 

11.     JoppA  Taken  and  Tiberias  Surrendered. 

Vespasian  left  the  depopulated  region  with  its  corpses 
and  ruins,  and  pressed  on  westward.  In  Joppa,  however, 
the  Hebrew  mariners  were  organized  and  carried  on  a  mari- 
time war  against  the  Romans  and  Syrians.  A  band  of 
Romans,  sent  by  Vespasian,  surprised  the  city  at  night  and 
many  of  the  inhabitants  fled  to  their  ships.  A  stcrni 
dashed  the  vessels  against  the  rocky  shores  and  many  per-, 
ished.  Joppa  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Romans  and 
the  patriotic  enterprise  of  the  mariners  was  frustrated. 
Many  of  them,  undoubtedly,  fled  to  European  and  African 
shores.  Meanwhile,  Vespasian  went  to  Agrippa's  capital, 
Csesarea  Philii^pi,  to  be  feasted  and  lauded  there.  Then  he 
marched  to  Tiberias  to  retake  it  for  Agrippa.  After  some 
resistance,  the  Zealots  and  their  compatriots  Avere  obliged 


(6)  He  certainly  did  not  dare  to  predict  this  before  the  death  of 
Nero  had  been  known  in  the  camp.  That  death  occurred  June,  68 
A.  c.,  about  the  same  time,  and  could  not  have  been  known  yet  in 
Palestine. 


342  THE    FIRST   PERIOD   OF   THE    WAR. 

to  leave  the  city  and  seek  refuge  in  the  neighboring  Tari- 
chcea.  Tiberias  surrendered  to  the  Romans  and  submitted 
again  to  the  autbority  of  Agrippa  II. 

12.     Fall  of  TARicHiEA — Bloody  Treachery  of 

Vespasian. 

Tarich£3ea,  at  the  south-western  end  of  the  lake,  was  well 
fortified  and  favorably  located  for  defense.  It  was  now  tbe 
center  of  fugitives  from  all  the  destroyed  and  surrendered 
cities,  reinforced  by  patriotic  men  from  all  parts  of  the 
upper  country.  Between  this  city  and  Tiberias,  the  Romans 
constructed  a  fortified  camp.  Jesus  b.  Sapliat,  command- 
ing tbe  fugitiV'CS  from  Tiberias,  provided  with  boats,  came 
upon  the  Romans  from  the  coast,  drove  away  the  work- 
ing men,  destroyed  the  walls  of  the  camp,  and  retired  to 
the  vessels.  The  Hebrews  retreated  before  the  enemy,  ap- 
proaching in  force,  far  enough  into  the  sea  that  their  pro- 
jectiles could  reach  the  enemy,  who  could  make  no  attack 
on  them.  At  a  distance,  the  Hebrews  were  superior  to  the 
Romans  with  their  heavy  armament.  Titus  commanding 
there,  was  obliged  to  send  for  reinforcements.  When  a  part 
of  them  had  arrived,  he  attacked  the  Hebrews  outside  the 
walls  of  Tarichaea,  and  forced  them  to  retreat.  Vespasian 
prepared  a  fleet  to  fight  the  Hebrews  on  the  lake,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  destroying  their  whole  fleet,  and  the  sea  was  full 
of  dead  bodies  and  destroyed  vessels.  The  engagement 
was  a  most  desperate  one  and  cost  many  lives  on  both 
sides.  Meanwhile,  Titus  had  taken  the  city  with  the  as- 
sistance of  its  original  inhabitants,  who  bad  been  promised 
pardon  by  Vespasian.  Still,  after  the  victory  had  been  se- 
cured, the  mighty  Roman  gave  permission  to  his  brutal 
hordes  to  kill  one  thousand  and  two  hundred  old  and  dis- 
abled people,  sent  six  thousand  of  the  young  and  strong  to 
Nero  "  to  dig  through  the  Isthmus  "  (Wars  iii.,  x.  10),  and 
sold  30,400  of  them  into  slavery,  besides  those  whom  he 
presented  to  Agrippa  {EUul,  68  a.  c).  Only  a  Roman 
could  be  so  treacherous  and  barbarous.  Every  feeling  of 
humanity  and  every  sense  of  justice  had  been  suffocated 
among  the  brutalized  Heathens  of  that  age;  and  among 
all  Heathens,  the  worst  were,  undoubtedl}',  the  Roman 
Grandees. 

13.     The  Last  Stronghold's  Fall. 

After  the  fall  of  Taricha^a,  the  cities  of  Galilee  surren- 
dered to  the  Romans,  and  the  rest  of  the  fighting  men  fled 


THE    FIRST   PERIOD    OF    THE   WAR.  343 

to  Mt.  Tabor,  which  was  Avell  fortified,  to  Gischala  and  to 
Gamala,  west  of  the  lake,  besides  those  who  escaped  into 
Judea  and  Perea.  Mt.  Tabor  was  taken  by  Placidus,  who 
had  made  treacherous  promises  to  the  warriors,  to  bring 
them  down  to  the  phiin,  where  they  were  massacred  in  cold 
blood.  The  defenders  of  Gamala,  however,  offered  the  most 
heroic  resistance  to  the  entire  Roman  army.  Agrippa  had 
been  beaten  before  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  Vespasian, 
with  his  whole  force,  besieged  it.  Many  Romans  lost  their 
lives  there  while  erecting  siege  works,  and  in  the  first  as- 
sault upon  the  city  they  sustained  such  terrible  losses  that 
the  entire  army  was  in  danger,  and  Vcsi)asian  saved  his  life 
by  personal  bravery.  The  city  was  short  of  provisions  and 
water,  so  many  Avere  obliged  to  leave.  When  half  the  pop- 
ulation was  gone,  another  assault  was  made  on  the  city  and 
then  on  its  citadel,  which  would  not  have  been  taken  had 
not  a  violent  storm  on  the  top  of  that  mountain  favored  the 
Romans.  The  twenty-seventh  day  of  TisJiri^  the  city  and 
its  citadel  fell,  and  those  of  its  inhabitants  who  had  not 
escaped  by  subterranean  passages  were  massacred.  With 
Gamala,  the  last  hope  of  the  patriots  in  Galilee  vanished. 
Gischala  capitulated,  after  John  and  all  his  men  had  left. 
Galilee  was  conquered,  Agrippa  II.  was  again  lord  of  his 
kingdom,  the  heroes  of  Jotapata,  Tarichsea  and  Gamala 
were  in  their  graves,  and,  as  far  as  Galilee  was  concerned, 
the  war  w^as  over. 

14.     State  of  Affairs  in  Jerusalem. 

The  central  authority  in  Jerusalem,  under  Ananus, 
Joseph  b.  Gorion  and  the  Sanhedrin,  gave  no  assistance  to 
Galilee,  and  during  the  years  67  and  68  a.  c.  did  nothing  to 
prepare  for  the  war,  besides  the  abortive  attack  on  Ascalon, 
the  fortifying  of  Jerusalem  and  some  other  cities,  arming 
the  defenders  of  those  cities  and  storing  provisions  in  tiiem, 
•exactly  as  Josephus  had  done  in  Galilee  (7).  While  the 
Roman  army  was  engaged  in  Galilee  and  Samaria,  nothing 
was  done  in  Judea,  Perea  and  Iduraea  to  weaken  the  enemy, 
to  divert  his  attention  or  to  divide  his  forces.     Therefore,  it 


(7)  Tlie  Talmud  GuHin,  56  a,  and  the  Miilrash  Rabba  to  Lamenta- 
tion, furnish  the  story  of  the  four  rich  men  in  Jerusalem,  Ben 
Zizith,  Ben  Gorion,  Ben  Nakdhnon  and  Ben  Kalba  Shebua,  who  liad 
laid  up  provisions  enough  to  last  the  city  ten  years  or  longer.  How- 
ever, when  the  Zealots  took  possession  of  the  government  they,  by 
one  of  tlieir  captains,  Ben  Bntiah,  a  nephew  of  R.  Jochanan  b.  8accai, 
buri^i  all  the  provisions  in  order  to  force  the  population  to  fight  or 
StS^v'v;, 


344  THE    FIRST    PERIOD   OF    THE    WAR. 

could  not  be  doubtful  to  anybody  tbat  the  policy  of  th& 
central  authority  was  precisely  the  same  as  that  of  Josc- 
plius,  to  keep  the  peace,  and  to  obtain  favorable  conditions. 
The  conquest  of  Galilee  and  the  comfort  of  Josephus  in 
the  Roman  camp  could  not  fail  to  convince  the  Zealots  that 
they  were  betrayed  by  the  party  in  power,  although  they 
had  not  the  strength  in  Jerusalem  or  the  provinces  to  super- 
sede their  opponents.  But  after  the  conquest  of  Galilee, 
there  came  to  Jerusalem  John  of  Gischala,  with  all  his 
armed  men  and^the  fugitive  Zealots  from  all  Galilee,  and 
they  were  received  with  enthusiasm  by  their  compatriots. 
They  imbued  many  of  the  young  men  with  the  itlea  that 
fighting  in  the  weak  cities  of  Galilee  after  the  strongest 
places  had  been  lost,  was  a  waste  of  lives,  which  had  to  be 
saved  for  the  defense  of  Jerusalem,  the  impregnable  city, 
never  to  be  taken  by  the  Romans.  In  a  short  time  the  Zea- 
lots were  in  possession  of  sufficient  power  to  take  the  reins  of 
government  into  their  own  hands.  They  began  (68  to  69  a. 
c.)  by  taking  possession  of  the  temple.  They  deposed  all  the 
old  officers,  and  in  order  to  overcome  the  historical  riglit  of 
primogeniture  in  filling  those  offices,  they  went  back  to  the 
old  practice  of  deciding  by  the  lot. .  Having  accomplished 
that,  they  deposed  also  the  highpriest,  Matthias  b.  Theo- 
philus,  and  appointed  as  his  successor,  one  of  their  demo- 
cratic men  from  the  country,  Phanneas  (Pinchas)  b.  Sam- 
uel. The  temple  was  now  the  headquarters  of  the  Zealots. 
The  aristocratic  party  was  roused  to  appreciate  the  danger 
of  the  situation  by  the  eloquence  of  Ananus,  Joseph  b. 
Gorion,  Simon  b.  Gamliel,  and  other  men  of  the  highest 
authority.  In  a  public  meeting,  it  was  resolved  to  set 
bounds  to  the  dominion  and  excesses  of  the  Zealots,  and  a 
body  of  militia  volunteered  to  effect  that  purpose. 

15.     Outbreak  of  Civil  War. 

The  Zealots  being  informed  of  the  resolution  of  Ananus, 
met  on  the  Temple  INIount,  and  John  of  Gis(;hala,  who  had 
a  seat  in  the  council  of  Ananus  and  was  sent  to  pacify  the 
Zealots,  roused  them  to  speedy  and  energetic  resistance  to 
the  lawful  authority.  He  impressed  upon  them  two  points, 
viz. :  that  they  need  expect  no  pardon  from  their  oppo- 
nents, and  that  the  latter  were  about  to  call  in  the  Romans 
to  their  assistance.  He  counseled  resolute  resistance  to 
the  authorities  and  the  speedy  invitation  of  armed  succor 
from  other  parts  of  the  country.  His  counsel  prevailed. 
The  leaders  of  the  Zealots,  who  were  the  priests,  Eleazar  b^ 


THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OF    THE    WAR.  345 

Simon  and  Zachariah  b.  Phalek,  gave  the  alarm,  "  Ananus 
has  imposed  upon  the  people  and  was  betraying  the  metrop- 
olis to  the  Romans."  They  dispatched  secret  messengers 
to  Idumea,  asked  instant  reinforcement,  and  made  ready 
for  self-defense.  The  militia  led  against  them  was  superior 
to  them  in- number  and  alacrity,  but  they  Avere  superior  in 
arms  and  discipline.  The  first  conflict  was  very  obstinate 
and  murderous  on  both  sides,  until  the  citizens  of  Jerusa- 
lem were  thoroughly  aroused ;  but  then  they  overpowered 
the  Zealots,  took  the  cloisters,  and  drove  the  Zealots  into- 
the  Court  of  Women,  which  the  latter  closed  and  defended 
from  the  parapets.  Ananus  did  not  wish  to  break  through 
the  gates  or  to  lead  his  men  into  the  interior  of  the  temple 
courts  without  being  first  Levitically  cleansed,  and  submit- 
ting to  ritualistic  })rejudices,  he  stopped  short  with  the 
work  half  done.  He  selected  six  thousand  men  to  besiege 
the  Zealots  in  the  interior  courts,  and  thought  the  work 
was  done.  So  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  thought,  and  the 
rich  sent  paid  substitutes  to  the  temple  cloisters  to  prevent 
the  escape,  of  the  Zealots.  But  unexpectedly,  twenty 
thousand  armed  men  from  Idumea,  well  organized,  under 
four  zealous  leaders,  John  and  Jacob  b.  Sosas,  Simon  b. 
Cathlas  and  Phineas  b.  Clusothus,  appeared  at  the  gates  of 
Jerusalem  to  reinforce  the  Zealots. 

16.     The  Idumeans  in  Jerusalem. 

When  the  messenger  of  the  Zealots  had  come  to  Idumea 
with  the  exciting  message,  the  rulers  of  that  province 
alarmed  the  impetuous  mass  of  patriots,  and  twenty  thou- 
sand of  them  rushed  to  arms  at  once  to  save  the  metropolis 
and  the  republic.  Ananus  closed  the  gates  of  Jerusalem 
against  them, which  only  enraged  and  confirmed  them  in  their 
belief  that  he  Avas  a  traitor  Avhose  intention  it  was  to  deliver 
the  metropol's  into  the  hands  of  Rome  (8).  In  vain  did  Joshua 
b.  Gamala  address  the  Idumean  warriors  to  make  them  un- 
derstand the  situation  and  to  persuade  them  to  keep  the 
peace.  Neither  his  age  and  dignity  nor  his  eloquence  and 
argumentation  changed  the  minds  of  those  champions  of 
independence.  Simon  b.  Cathlas  answered  in  their  behalf: 
"  You  are  traitors  and  we  have  come  to  protect  liberty,  and 
will  hold  to  our  arms  until  you  repent  of  what  you  have  done 


(8)  In  fact  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain  what  was,  at  that  time,  the  ac- 
tual intention  of  Ananus  and  liis  party.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  a, 
speedy  peace  with  Rome  was  their  i)rofrranniie,  l)elieving  that  th& 
fall  of  Galilee  must  have  changed  the  popular  mind. 


346  THE    FIRST    PKllIOl)    OV    THE    WAR. 

against  it."  The  Zealots  in  the  temple  took  advantage  of  a 
very  stormy  night;  some  of  their  boldest  men,  provided 
with  proper  implements,  made  their  escape  from  the  tem- 
ple, reached  the  city  gate,  and  quietly  opened  it  for  the 
Idu means,  whom  they  persuaded  to  proceed  quietly  and 
rapidly  to  the  Temple  Mount  and  to  raise  the  siege.  This 
they  did  ;  they  took  the  six  thousand  men  there  by  sur- 
prise ;  the  Zealots  in  the  tenjple  sallied  out,  and  a  terrible 
-conflict  and  carnage  ensued.  The  besieging  militia  fought 
bravely,  the  city  was  thoroughly  alarmed,  and  the  fight 
became  general  and  furious.  At  last  the  citizens  were  over- 
powered, the  outer  temple  was  drenched  in  blood,  and  the 
Zealots  were  in  possession  of  the  entire  mountain.  Now 
the  victorious  party  turned  against  the  cit}^,  plundered  and 
massacred  indiscriminately,  cut  down  the  principal  men  of 
the  part}"-  in  power,  and  slew  both  Ananus  and  Joshua  b. 
Gamala.  Then  they  convoked  a  Sanhedrin  of  seventy  of 
their  compatriots,  drove  the  lawful  Sanhedrin  out  of  the 
temple  (9),  tried  and  executed  those  who  were  suspected  of 
conspiracy  with  Rome,  and  committed  all  the  barbarous 
excesses  of  fanatical  and  enraged  partisans.  Eight  thou- 
sand and  five  hundred  men  fell  that  day.  Terror  reigned 
in  Jerusalem,  and  the  beginning  of  its  final  destruction  was 
made. 

17.     Reign  of  the  Zealots  in  Jerusalem — Escape  of 

R.    JOCHANAN    B.    SaCCAI   TO   JaMNIA. 

The  fury  of  the  Idumeans  being  spent,  they  began  to  see 


(9)  Josephus  does  not  report  Simon  b.  Gamliel  among  the  slain  of 
that  terriljle  day.  although  he  was  certainly  one  of  the  principal 
leaders  of  the  moderate  party,  and  the  rabbis  maintain  that  he  was 
slain  by  the  Romans  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  which  is  not  con- 
lirmi'd  by  Josephus,  although  it  is  so  adopted  by  Josephon  (chapter 
xcvii.).  Still  his  name  is  mentioned  no  more  in  any  of  tiie  records. 
Josephus  merely  records  that  the  Zealots  set  up  "fictitious  tribunals 
of  justice;"  that  among  the  most  eminent  men  who  were  slain  at 
that  time  was  Zicliariah  b  B.iruch  ;  "Moreover,  they  struck  the 
judges  with  the  l)acks  of  their  swords,  by  way  of  abuse  and  tiirust 
them  out  of  the  court  of  the  temple  "  An  ancient  tradition  recorded 
in  the  last  section  of  IMeguuxath  Taanitii,  maintains  that  on  the 
twenty-filth  day  of  Simn,  there  werp  slain  Simon  b.  Gamliel,  Ish- 
mael  b  Elishah  an  I  Haninah  Segan  Hak-kohanim.  The  latter  being 
identical  with  Ananus  and  Ishmae'  to  be  amended  by  Joshua  b.  Ga- 
mala it  would  appear  that  >^imon  also  was  amof^g  the  victims  of  that 
bloody  twenty-fifth  day  of  Sivan  in  the  year  69  a.  c.,  of  which  it  is 
said  also  in  Dihrei  Malchuth  Bavitii  Siieni,  that  many  of  the  most 
pious  men  in  Israel  6x"l*L^'"'  "TDH)  were  slain  that  day. 


THE    FIRST    PERIOD    OF   THE    WAR.  347 

the  wickedness  of  their  doings.  Repentance  came  too  late, 
the  dead  could  not  be  reanimated.  No  enemy  approach- 
ing the  capital,  and  the  accusation  of  treason  against  the 
•slain  men  lacking  evidence,  the  Idumeans  quietly  left  the 
city  to  the  surprise  of  the  parties  left  behind.  The  Zealots 
being  now  in  undisputed  possession  of  the  power,  contin- 
ued the  blood}^  work  by  cutting  down  all  prominent  men 
whom  they  suspected  of  loyalty  to  the  overthrown  party. 
Among  the  latter,  there  Avere  two  men  of  great  prominence, 
viz.  :  Gorion  and  Niger,  the  ex-Governor  of  Idumea,  whose 
body  was  full  of  scars  of  wounds  received  in  the  service  of 
Lis  country.  The  rich  people  fled,  although  the  Zealots 
guarded  every  passage  out  of  the  city,  and  slew  the  fugi- 
tives ;  yet  their  guards  were  bribed  by  some,  while  others 
escaped  their  vigilance.  Among  the  latter,  there  was  also 
R.  Jochanan  b.  Saccai,  the  Chief-Justice  and  Vice-President 
of  the  Sanhedrin.  His  disciples.  Eliezer  b.  Hyrcan  and 
Joshua  b.  Hananiah,  carried  a  coffin  out  of  the  city  for 
hurial,  in  which,  instead  of  a  corpse,  there  was  the  venera- 
ble and  hoary  disciple  of  Hillel.  Ben  Batiah,  the  nephew 
■of  R.  Jochanan,  being  on  duty  at  that  gate,  the  coffin  was 
not  searched.  They  succeeded  in  reaching  the  Roman 
headquarters,  and  R.  Jochanan  obtained  a  hearing  of  Ves- 
pasian, to  whom  he  prophesied  both  the  downfall  of  Jeru- 
salem and  its  temple,  and  Vespasian's  elevation  to  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars.  The  Roman  general  being  well  dis- 
posed to  the  fugitives,  and  especially  to  the  hoar}^  savan 
who  represented  the  intelligence  of  his  country,  the  rabbi 
•asked  of  him  the  favor  to  be  given  Jamnia  (Jabneh)  as  a 
place  of  refuge  for  himself  and  his  disciples,  to  continue 
there,  in  peace,  the  teaching  of  the  Law,  as  he  had  formerly 
-done  at  Berur  Chol.  This  being  granted,  the  rabbi  and  his 
•disciples  went  to  Jamnia,  re-opened  its  ancient  academ}'', 
•and  there  laid  the  foundation  to  the  reconstruction  of  Juda- 
ism out  of  the  ruins  of  its  ancient  polity  and  politics.  In 
Jerusalem,  however,  with  the  death  and  flight  of  her  most 
■eminent  citizens,  a  reign  of  terror  was  maintained  by  men, 
of  whom  Josephus  reports  (Wars  iv.,  vi.  3),  that  they  tram- 
pled upon  all  the  laws  of  m;in,  laughed  at  the  laws  of  God, 
and  ridiculed  the  oracles  of  the  prophets  as  the  tricks  of 
jugglers ;  although  it  can  not  be  doubted  that  he  exagger- 
ates, in  order  to  defame  his  enemies  and  to  justify,  par- 
tially, the  Roman  barbarities. 


348  the  first  period  of  the  war. 

18.     Vespasian's  Further  Conquests. 

Meanwhile,  Vespasian  continued  liis  conquests  in  the 
north  and  west  of  Jerusalem  almost  without  resistance. 
He  had  reduced  all  Acrabatene,  also  Jamnia  and  the  whole 
sea  coast  down  to  Gaza.  His  captains  wanted  him  to  march 
at  once  to  Jerusalem  and  take  it,  as  he  had  been  invited^ 
and  he  would  certainly  have  been  welcomed  as  a  redeemer 
by  the  bulk  of  the  population.  But  he  refused  to  do  it,, 
and  thought  the  partisans  of  the  capital  would  destroy  one 
another  fast  enough.  While  the  Zealots  were  doing  noth- 
ing for  the  protection  of  the  country,  and  their  compatriots- 
all  over  the  land  imitated  their  acts  of  violence  in  various 
cities,  the  inhabitants  of  Gadara,  east  of  the  Jordan,  a  re- 
sort of  a  large  number  of  very  rich  people,  cnlled  on  Ves- 
pasian for  protection.  Placidus  came  with  sufficient  force 
to  frighten  the  Zealots  out  of  Gadara.  But  the  fugitives,, 
reinforced  by  the  country  people  fleeing  before  the  ap- 
proaching enemy,  took  a  stand  at  Bethenrabris,  and  gave 
battle  to  the  enemy.  Their  courage  and  enthusiasm  were 
counteracted  and  overcome  by  the  strategies  of  the  Romans, 
their  superior  tactics  and  arms,  and  the  fighting  Hebrews- 
were  defeated  and  their  stronghold  burnt.  They  fled  to- 
ward the  Jordan,  followed  by  many  thousands  of  the  terri- 
fied country  people,  and  ])ursued  by  the  Roman  cavalry.. 
The  massacre  and  destruction  of  property  were  horrible. 
The  Jordan  being  impassable,  another  dis.astrous  battle  was 
fought,  and  only  those  who  swam  the  Jordan  or  fled  to  the 
wilderness,  escaped.  150,000  of  the  defenders  of  Perea  lost 
their  lives  and  2,200  were  taken  prisoners.  Perea  down  ta 
Macherus  was  again  subjected  to  the  Roman  sway.  Mach- 
erus  and  the  country  around  it  could  not  be  taken  by  Placi- 
dus. Meanwhile,  the  best  part  of  Idumea  was  also  over- 
run, the  cities  burnt,  the  inhabitants  slain  without  mercy,, 
and  wliatever  could  not  be  carried  ofl"  by  the  brutal  invad- 
ers was  destroyed.  Like  the  city'  of  Gerasa,  which  was 
totally  ransacked  and  destroyed  by  L.  Annius,  cities  and 
villages,  whatever  their  population  professed,  were  swept 
away  and  their  population  massacred  like  wild  beasts  or 
sold  to  slave  dealers.  Trajan  was  the  name  of  th(!  hyena 
that  raged  in  Idumea.  He  boasted  of  having  slain  10,000,. 
and  bringing  1,000  prisoners.  Near  Jericho,  he  met  Ves- 
pasian. That  city  capitulated  without  resistance.  All 
these  slaughters,  however,  did  not  secure  the  country  to 
Vespasian.  The  mountains,  with  their  natural  fastnesses, 
caverns,  steep  and  narrow  i)asses,  were  as  so  many  dangerous 


THE    FIRST   PERIOD   OF   THE    WAR.  849 

points  for  the  invader,  and  Vespasian  was  obliged  to  build 
forts  and  castles  in  many  jDoints  of  the  land  to  secure  him- 
self against  the  concentration  of  the  patriots  and  the  sur- 
prise of  his  army  on  the  plains,  as  had  been  done  often 
before.  Finding  the  whole  land  swarming  with  rebellious 
patriots,  who,  defeated  in  their  cities,  sought  refuge  in  the 
mountains,-  he  could  not  venture  the  siege  of  Jerusalem 
before  he  was  master  of  the  land,  which  was  a  difficult  task, 
and  took  considerable  time.  Meanwhile,  Nero  had  made 
an  end  of  his  miserable  life  and  reign  (June  11,  68  a.  c), 
and  a  period  of  confusion  followed  in  Rome  under  the  suc- 
cessors of  Nero — Galba,  Otho  and  Vitellius — all  in  one  year 
(68  A.  c.  to  July  of  69).  Meanwhile,  the  armies  of  the 
East  proclaimed  Vespasian  Emperor  of  Rome.  From  Jeri- 
cho, he,  in  company  with  his  son  Titus,  and  also  Josephus, 
released  from  his  chains,  went  to  Alexandria,  and  some  of 
the  best  legions  followed  them.  The  struggle  for  the  throne 
of  the  Csesars  against  Vitellius  and  his  party  was  con- 
ducted on  the  part  of  Vespasian  from  Alexandria,  and 
€nded  with  his  victory;  so  that  in  July,  69  a.  c,  he  was 
proclaimed  emperor  in  Rome.  He  became  the  founder  of 
the  Flavins  dynasty,  which  name  Josephus  was  also  given, 
in  addition  to  his  Hebrew  name.  He  remained  in  Alexan- 
dria till  the  Judean  war  was  over,  in  order  to  return  as  vic- 
tor and  conqueror  of  the  Orient. 


350  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   JERUSALEM. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


The  Destruction  of  Jerusalem. 


1.     Jerusalem  Before  its  Destruction. 

Jerusalem  was,  after  Antioch,  the  largest  city  of  the 
East.  It  had  within  its  walls  over  600,000  inhabitants,  and 
was  capable,  with  its  suburbs,  to  give  shelter  to  two  mil- 
lions and  even  three  millions  of  people,  a  number  which 
did  sometimes  assemble,  including  the  pilgrims  from  all 
parts  of  the  then  inhabited  earth.  The  city  embraced  now 
within  its  walls  Zion  in  the  south-west,  Acra  directly  north 
thereof,  and  Bezetha  directly  north  of  Acra,  the  suburb  of 
Bezetha  east  of  Bezetha,  the  Temple  Mount  south  thereof 
and  Ophel  south  of  the  temple.  The  city,  with  its  one 
hundred  and  sixty-four  towers,  rising  thirty-two  feet  above 
the  wall,  with  its  numerous  cupolas  and  minarets  within^ 
presented  a  most  picturesque  and  imposing  prospect  from 
the  highest  point  of  Mt.  Olives.  The  streets  of  Jerusalem 
were  narrow,  paved  with  white  stone,  well  drained  and  ex- 
tremely clean ;  but  besides  one  rosary,  tliere  was  neither 
garden,  park  nor  tree  in  the  city.  Its  fortifications  were  no 
mean  evidence  of  the  Hebrews'  achievements  in  architect- 
ure and  mechanics.  No  city  was  better  fortified  than 
Jerusalem  before  its  fall.  It  consisted  of  six  fortified  places 
with  citadels  in  each,  and  the  temple  was  a  citadel  within 
a  citadel,  with  all  possible  obstacles  to  an  advancing  enemy, 
with  its  lirass  gates,  its  parapets  and  towers.  Rich  people 
occupied  cloisters  and  lodges  about  the  temple,  where  they 
not  only  came  to  worship,  but  also  deposited  there  their 
treasures  for  safe  keeping  (it  never  occurred  that  anything 
was  stolen  in  or  about  the  temple,  that  a  building  was 
struck  by  lightning,  or  that  a  fire  broke  out  accidentally) ; 
so  that  an  immense  wealth  was  gathered  around  and  in  the 
temple  treasury.     The  city  was  well-provisioned  until  the 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM.  351 

Zealots  destroyed  the  provisions  to  force  the  citizens  to 
starve  or  fight.  It  was  supposed  that  Jerusalem  was  im- 
pregnable, and  besideSj  it  was  believed  by  many  that  God 
would  not  permit  the  holy  city  and  temple  to  be  taken^ 
although  others  had  prophesied  its  destruction  long  before. 

2.    The  Zealots  in  Jerusalem. 

After  the  death  of  Ananus  and  the  victory  of  John  of 
Gischala  and  the  Idumeans,  many  citizens  fied  from  the 
city.  Still  the  expeditions  of  Vespasian  north  and  west  of 
Jerusalem,  also  in  Perea  and  Idumea,  drove  so  many  more 
fugitives  to  the  cnpital,  some  to  save  their  lives  and  treas- 
ures, and  others  to  fight  for  the  city  and  the  temple.  The 
fugitives  increased  the  forces  of  the  Zealots  and  augmented, 
especially,  the  number  of  John's  adherents,  while  the  Zea- 
lots of  Jerusalem  acknowledged  Eleazar  b.  Annus  as  their 
head.  No  Banhedrin  and  no  centrnl  authority  are  men- 
tioned any  longer.  The  most  propitious  time,  when  Ves- 
pasian and  Titus,  with  the  best  portion  of  the  Roman 
legions  had  left  the  country,  and  the  whole  Eoman  Emjjire 
was  shaking  under  the  violence  of  its  armies  and  emperors, 
was  wasted  by  the  leaders  in  Jerusalem  in  fortifying  their 
own  power  and  holding  the  peaceable  citizens  in  subjecticn. 
Now  was  the  time  either  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  or  to  win 
the  favor  of  Vespasian,  neither  of  which  was  done,  and  the 
year  68  a.  c.  passed  awa}''  without  anything  being  done  ex- 
cept sending  messengers  to  Mesopotamia  and  Parthia  to 
obtain  succor  from  that  side,  Avhich  proved  a  failure. 

3.     Simon  b.  Gorion. 

Simon  b.  Gorion,  prominent  among  those  who  had 
fouglU  Cestius  Gallus,  and  aiterward  among  the  opponents 
of  Ananus,  had  been  driven  with  his  men  into  Messada. 
He  was  a  patriot  and  soldier  of  uncommon  courage,  bodily 
vigor  and' military  talent.  The  men  of  Messada  did  not 
trust  him,  and  after  they  had  been  driven  out  of  Jerusalem, 
were  unwilling  to  engage  again  in  any  warfare  except  in 
defense  of  their  city.  After  the  death  of  Ananus  and  the 
fall  of  his  party  in  Jerusalem,  Simon  left  Messada,  retired 
into  the  mountains,  proclaimed  freedom  to  the  slaves,  and 
succeeded  in  collecting  an  army  about  him.  He  fortified 
a  town  called  Naix  and  the  caves  in  the  valley  of  Pharan. 
The  Zealots  of  Idumea  being  alarmed  by  the  progress  of 
Simon,  met  him  at  their  borders,  and  gave  him  battle. 
Without  being  defeated,  Simon  went  back  to  Nain,  reor- 


352  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM. 

ganized  his  army  and  marched  to  Thecoa,  from  whence  he 
sent  an  embassy  to  the  garrison  of  Herodiuin.  demanding 
the  surrender  of  that  place.  His  embassador,  Eleazar,  was 
killed.  Still  one  of  the  Idumean  chiefs  espoused  Simon's 
cause,  and  he  succeeded  in  taking  Hebron  and  overrunning 
Idumea  from  that  point.  The  Zealots  of  Jerusalem,  jeal- 
ous of  Simon's  growing  power,  and  unable  to  give  him  bat- 
tle, laid  ambushes  in  the  passes,  and  succeeded  in  capturing 
his  wife,  whom  they  took  to  Jerusalem.  Instead  of  bring- 
ing Simon  to  terms,  as  the  intention  was,  it  made  him 
furious.  He  marched  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
maltreated  or  killed  whomsoever  fell  into  his  hands,  and 
threatened  destruction  to  everybody,  until  the  frightened 
Zealots  liberated  his  wife.  He  returned  to  Idumea,  driving 
the  people  before  him  to  seek  refuge  in  Jerusalem. 

4.     Simon  b.  Gorion  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  Army  of 
Defense. 

When  Vespasian  was  gone  and  the  danger  of  an  imme- 
diate siege  averted,  the  Zealots  in  the  city  behaved  them- 
selves outrageously  against  the  citizens  and  pilgrims,  not 
only  by  vulgar  and  immoral  conduct,  but  also  by  con- 
stant feuds,  fights  and  bloodshed.  Some  of  them  mixed 
among  the  crowd  in  women's  attire,  and  assassinated  their 
enemies.  They  appropriated  for  themselves  the  first  fruits 
and  tithes  brought  to  Jerusalem,  and  lived  in  high  glee  on 
other  people's  property.  At  last  a  fight  broke  out  among 
the  Zealots,  the  Idumeans  attacked  John's  men  and  broke 
into  the  Grapta  palace  at  Ophel,  where  John  had  his  treas- 
ury and  headquarters.  While  John  rallied  his  men  on  the 
Temple  Mount,  the  priests  and  citizens  embraced  the  cause 
of  the  Idumeans,  and  sent  for  Simon  b.  Gorion  to  come  to 
their  assistance.  He  came  and  took  possession  of  the  city, 
and  the  Zealots  held  the  temple.  The  two  parties  attempt- 
ing to  dislodge  one  another,  destroyed  houses  and  maga- 
zines, so  that  the  Temple  Mount  was  environed  with  ruins. 
Mauy  warriors  and  non-combatants  lost  their  lives,  and 
many  a  store  of  provisions  was  consumed  by  fire.  At  last 
the  Zealots  on  the  Temple  Mount  also  disagreed.  Eleazar, 
Avho  had  started  the  war,  saw  himself  under  the  command 
of  John  of  Gischala,  whom  he  disliked.  He  persuaded  a 
number  of  leaders  to  revolt  against  John,  and  they  fol- 
lowed him  to  the  interior  of  the  Temple  Court,  in  Avhich 
they  Avere  secure  against  attacks  from  John,  and  took  the 
material  stored  near  by  for  raising  the  temple  wall  twenty 


THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   JERUSALEM.  853 

■cubits,  and  constructed  four  towers  to  protect  themselves 
against  attacks  from  Simon  b.  Gorion.  Now  citizens  and 
pilgrims  coming  to  the  temple  ran  the  risk  of  being  plun- 
dered twice,  once  by  John's  and  once  by  Eleazar's  men. 
All  attempts  to  make  peace  among  the  three  factions,  in 
which  the  late  highpriest  took  the  lead,  proved  a  failure ; 
each  of  the  three  chief  men  claimed  the  highest  authority, 
and  they  jealously  watched  each'  other's  movements.  So 
the  most  precious  time,  from  69  (to  the  spring  of  70  a.  c, 
was  wasted,  men,  buildings  and  provisions  were  destroyed, 
many  of  the  citizens  were  forced'  to  leave,  while  others 
wished  for  the  approach  of  the  Romans  in  order  to  direct 
the  warrivi'rf'  attention  abroad.  There  were  now  in  the  city 
24,000  warriors  :  3,000  under  Eleazar  and  Simon  b.  Jair, 
6,000  under  John  of  Gischala,  5,000  Idumeans  under  Jacob 
b.  Sosa  and  Simon  b.  Cathla,  and  10,000  under  Simon  b. 
Gorion.  Had  those  24,000  impetuous  heroes,  together  with 
the  Zealots  of  Massada  and  elsewhere,  been  in  the  field 
when  Vespasian  marched  into  Galilee,  which  could  have 
been  the  case,  and  their  number  could  have  been  largely  in- 
creased, if  the  moderate  party  had  been  earnest  in  their  pur- 
pose to  make  war,  history  would  have  taken  quite  a  differ- 
ent turn ;  but  now  it  was  too  late.  One  city  with  but  a 
small  strip  of  country  around  it  could  not  effectually  resist 
the  Roman  colossus,  had  every  man,  woman  and  child 
therein  been  a  Maccabean  hero ;  as  Rome,  to  save  its  honor 
and  its  dominion  in  the  East,  was  obliged  to  crush  the  He- 
brews. 

5.     Titus  Approaches  Jerusalem. 

Vespasian  having  secured  the  throne  of  the  Caesars, 
Titus  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  in 
Judea.  The  festivities  over  in  Rome  and  Alexandria,  Titus 
came  with  an .  army  to  Caesarea.  His  legions  and  aux- 
iliaries amounted  to  no  less  than  80,000  men,  provided  with 
all  war  engines  known  in  Rome  and  every  facility  which 
science  had  invented.  Two  distinguished  Hebrews  were  in 
his  camp,  the  apostate  Tiberius  Alexander,  Avho  was  a  gen- 
eral under  Titus,  and  Josephus,  supposed  to  have  been  used 
as  a  mediator  between  Romans  and  Hebrews,  although  the 
latter  considered  him  a  renegade,  traitor  and  spy.  It  was 
possible  yet  to  save  the  city  and  temple.  Titus  was  madly 
in  love  with  Berenice,  the  sister  of  Agrippa  II.,  although 
she  was  ten  or  fifteen  years  his  senior  and  had  been  the 
wife  of  two  husbands.  She  was  not  without  patriotism  and 
piety.     It  was  easy  to  win  her  for  the  cause  of  her  people, 


854  THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   JERUSALEM. 

and  it  was  in  her  power  to  influence  Titus  in  its  favor.  But 
this  circumstance,  perhaps,  was  unlcnown,  and  the  Zealots 
would  not  have  violated  their  oatli  of  liberty  or  death.  So 
Titus  marched  without  any  molestation  from  Csesarea  to 
Jerusalem. 

6.  The  Zealots'  First  Victory. 

Titus,  on  approaching  the  city,  went  with  six  hundred 
cavalry  from  the  main  body  of  his  troops  to  reconnoiter 
the  northwestern  corner  of  the  fortification.  When  he  ap- 
proached the  tower  of  Psephinus,  suddenly  a  number  of 
Hebrews  rushed  forth  from  the  places,  called  the  Women's- 
Towers  and  surrounded  Titus  and  his  men,  so  that  the 
commander  of  the  army  saved  his  life  only  by  his  personal 
bravery  and  the  skill  of  his  cavalry.  After  this  lesson, 
Titus  knew  he  had  to  deal  with  a  valiant  enemy,  and  began 
to  be  cautious.  Three  camps  were  to  be  fortified  for  the 
besieging  array,  one  at  Scopus,  opposite  the  northeastern 
wall  of  the  suburb  of  Bezetha;  another  camp  was  to  be 
laid  out  at  the  other  end  of  the  fortifications,  viz. :  behind 
the  sepulchre  of  the  Kings  of  Adiabene,  opposite  the  north- 
eastern wall  of  Bezetha ;  and  another  camp  for  the  Tenth 
Legion,  coming  via  Jericho,  was  to  be  located  on  Mount 
Olives.  When  the  Tenth  Legion  went  to  work  to  construct 
the  camp,  the  Hebrews  sallied  forth  from  their  fortifica- 
tions and  attacked  them  with  such  impetuosity  that  they 
were  thrown  into  a  state  of  disorder  and  confusion,  from 
which  they  recovered  but  slowly,  to  turn  and  attack  the 
Hebrews.  But  the  latter  fell  on  the  Romans  with  renewed 
fury,  and  would  have  crushed  the  Tenth  Legion,  if  Titus 
had  not  come  with  succor  from  the  northeastern  camp.  So 
the  beginning  was  made  and  it  augured  success  to  the  be- 
sieged, who  had  thus  twice  worsted  the  over-confident 
enemy,  whose  approach  had  suddenly  united  all  the  fac- 
tions m  the  city,  although  they  did  not  give  up  their  re- 
spective positions  within,  and  watched  each  other  with  the 
same  jealousy  as  heretofore. 

7.  Assassination  in  the  Temple. 

The  beginning  of  the  siege  occurred  a  few  days  before 
Passover,  with  a  vast  concourse  of  pilgrims  in  the  city.  On 
the  Feast  of  Passover,  Eleazar  opened  the  temple  "for  the 
worshipers.  Among  them  there  came  also  the  men  of  John, 
with  arms_  concealed  under  their  garments,  and  suddenly 
appeared   in   armor   among  the  crowd   of   pilgrims.      The 


THE    DESTRUCTION   OF   JERUSALEM.  355 

Eleazar  men  discovering  the  treacheiy,  leaped  down  from 
tlie  battlements  and  sought  refuge  in  the  subterranean  pas- 
sages of  the  temple.  The  pilgrims  stood  amazed,  were 
driven  from  place  to  place,  many  were  beaten,  trampled 
upon,  and  not  a  few  were  slain.  After  the  pilgrims  were 
out,  John  seized  upon  all  the  engines  Avhich  Eleazar  had 
constructed  or  captured,  and  began  an  attack  on  Simon  and 
the  city.  Many  lost  their  lives  on  that  last  Passover  in  the 
Temple  ;  still  the  two  factions  on  the  Temple  Mount  were 
reunited,  and  Jerusalem  had  only  two  factions  under  Si- 
mon and  John. 

8.     The  Romans  Beaten  Again. 

This  state  of  affairs  becoming  known  in  the  Roman 
camp,  Josephus  was  sent  to  invite  the  jjarties  to  surrender, 
but  he  could  get  no  decisive  answer  from  anybody.  The 
besieged  made  the  best  use  of  the  information  obtained 
from  the  enemy.  Titus  being  engaged  with  moving  the 
camp  down  Mount  Olives,  in  an  air  line  with  the  walls  of 
the  temple,  and  leveling  the  valley  betAveen,  a  party  of 
Hebrews  came  out  of  the  walls  and  behaved  as  if  they  had 
been  ejected  from  the  city,  and  those  upon  the  wall  appar- 
ently attacked  those  below  to  drive  them  hence.  The  Ro- 
mans were  deluded  into  the  belief  that  one  hostile  faction 
had  driven  the  other  out  of  the  city,  and  rushed  to  the  at- 
tack. When  the  Romans  had  been  drawn  near  enough  to 
the  fortifications,  the  Hebrews,  reinforced  from  the  city,  at- 
tacked them  and  drove  them  clear  back  to  their  old  fortifi- 
cations. Titus,  after  this  third  defeat,  would  have  been 
inclined  to  a  reasonable  peace.  One  Nicanor,  together  with 
Josepbus,  approached  the  wall  near  enough  to  discourse 
with  tbe  sentinels,  and  to  offer  terms  of  peace  to  the  lead- 
ers. The  answer  was  a  shower  of  darts  and  stones.  Ni- 
canor was  wounded,  and  Titus  was  forced  to  prepare  for  a 
long  and  tedious  siege. 

■  9.     Another  Successful  Sally. 

The  siege  progressed  steadily.  Places  were  leveled,  em- 
bankments thrown  up,  engines  put  in  position  and  three 
towers  were  erected  to  overlook  the  walls.  Once  more  the 
Hebrews  sallied  out  in  force  and  engaged  the  enemy  with 
the  intention  of  destroying  the  siege  works  and  burning 
the  engines  and  towers.  It  was  a  desperate  struggle,  en- 
gaging the  entire  Roman  force  to  save  the  engines ;  still  a 
large  portion  of  the  siege  works  was  destroyed,  and  one  of 


356  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM. 

the  three  towers  came  down  at  night  with  a  terrible  crash, 
alarming  and  frightening  the  whole  camp.  This  last  sally, 
however,  exhausted  largely  the  strength  of  the  Hebrews  in 
the  city,  especially  as  on  the  same  day  they  lost  one  of 
their  principal  captains,  the  Idumean  John,  and  tliey  could 
no  longer  prevent  the  rams  from  l)attering  down  the  north- 
eastern wall  of  the  suburb  of  Bezetha. 

10.     The  First  Wall  Takex. 

On  the  seventh  day  of  If/ar  (70  a.  c),  the  first  wall  was 
taken  by  the  Romans,  without  much,  resistance,  which 
placed  the  suburb  of  Bezetha  in  their  power.  The  camp 
was  moved  to  that  suburb,  where  once  the  Assyrians  had 
been  encamped.  The  wall  between  that  suburb  and  Be- 
zetha was  now  defended  vigorously  by  Simon's  men,  and 
John's  force  attacked  the  enemy  from  Fort  Antonia  and 
the  temple  wall.  The  Hebrews  roused  from  a  momentary 
lethargy,  defended  that  wall  most  persistently,  and  made 
such  impetuous  sallies  on  the  Romans  that  they. worked 
and  fought  under  constant  dread,  slept  on  their  arms  at 
night,  and  the  presence  of  Titus  was  constantly  necessary 
to  encourage  them  in  order  to  hold  their  own ;  for  a  retreat 
e)i  masse,  which  the  Romans  were  several  times  on  the  point 
of  making,  would  have  proved  as  disastrous  to  the  army 
of  Titus  as  it  did  to  that  of  Cestius  Gallus.  The  Hebrews' 
impetuosity,  valor,  swiftness  and  death-defying  fury,  com- 
bined with  the  natural  shrewdness  of  the  race,  shari^cned 
by  danger  and  excitement,  proved  too  much  for  the  Romans, 
and  it  was  only  by  their  vast  superiority  in  numbers  and 
arms  that  they  maintained  their  position.  When  a  ram 
had  been  put  in  position  opposite  a  tower  in  the  north  of 
the  wall  and  the  battering  commenced,  negotiations  were 
opened  with  Titus  by  one  upon  the  tower,  whose  name  was 
Castor,  which,  it  appears,  were  broken  off  by  misunder- 
standing and  the  cowardice  of  Josephus,  who  was  afraid 
to  come  near  the  wall ;  and  so,  after  an  interval  of  a  few 
hours,  the  attack  was  continued. 

11.     The  Contest  About  Bezetha. 

The  twelfth  da}^  of  lyar  a  breach  had  been  battered  into 
the  wall  of  Bezetha,  and  the  Romans  proceeded  to  take 
possession  of  that  part  of  the  city  with  the  promise,  Jose- 
phus informs  us,  not  to  demolish  it,  but  to  protect  the  life 
and  property  of  the  citizens.  The  warriors,  however,  over- 
awed the  men  of  peace  and  drove  the  Romans  again  out  of 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM.  357 

the  city.  Three  days  longer  the  Hebrews  kept  the  Romans 
at  bay  before  the  walls  of  Bezetha,  but  on  the  fourth  they 
were  overpowered  and  forced  back  behind  the  walls  of 
Acra.  Bezetha  was  given  up  to  the  Romans  after  every 
inch  of  ground  had  been  heroically  contested  on  both  sides. 

12.  Overtures  of  Peace. 

Josephus  does  not  inform  us  how  many  Romans  had 
been  slain  bcfoi-e  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  before  Bezetha  had 
been  taken.  Yet  their  losses  must  have  been  very  heav}', 
for  Titus  made  another  attempt  to  get  possession  of  the 
city  by  treaty.  In  the  first  place,  lie  held  a  grand  parade 
of  his  whole  army  at  a  spot  whero  the  whole  maneuver 
could  be  seen  from  the  walls  and  roofs  of  the  city.  He 
paid  off  the  soldiers,  all  of  v/hom  appeared  in  full  and  daz- 
zling armor,  which  the  Hebrews  in  tho  city  saw  for  four 
successive  days.  This  was  a  terrifying  spectacle  for  those 
who  had  before  their  eyes  part  of  the  city  captured  and  the 
rest  threatened  by  famine,  and  an  enemy  apparently  in- 
vincible. Then  Josephus  was  sent  to  persuade  the  defend- 
ers of  the  city  to  surrender,  and  to  ofi'er  them  the  right 
hand  of  Caesar  for  their  security.  But  there  were  certainly 
not  many  in  the  city  who  placed  any  confidence  in  the 
words  of  Josephus,  nor  could  they  trust  in  Caesar's  word 
after  they  knew  what  had  been  done  in  Galilee,  Samaria, 
Idumea  and  Perea,  by  Vespasian  and  his  generals,  who 
slaughtered  thousands  to  whom  sacred  promises  of  security 
had  been  given.  Nor  could  anything  change  the  oath  of 
the  Zealots  to  fight  for  liberty  or  death,  and  their  estab- 
lished principle  to  die  as  freemen  is  preferable  to  living  as 
slaves.  Non-combatant  citizens,  however,  embraced  this  op- 
portunity and  left  the  city  with  more  or  less  hidden  treas- 
ures, and  were  permitted  by  Titus  to  seek  other  homes. 
The  Zealots  stopped  this  emigration  by  rigorous  measures^ 
although  the  famine  was  already  upon  them. 

13.  Barbarous  Outrages. 

There  were  many  non-combatants  in  the  city  who  would 
not  leave  because  they  surely  believed  God  would  not  de- 
liver the  holy  city  and  temple  into  the  enemy's  power; 
and  others  who  could  not  leave  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren and  would  not  desert  them.  The  scarcity  of  food 
compelled  many,  especially  of  the  jDOorer  class,  to  leave  tho 
city  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  food.  Instantly,  a  cav- 
alry  camp  was  established  at  the  junction  of  the  Gihon. 


358  THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   JERUSALEM. 

and  Kedron  Creeks,  to  capture  those  who  came  out  of  the 
city.  As  many  as  five  hundred  were  captured  in  one  day, 
all  of  whom  were  scourged  and  crucified  before  the  eyes  of 
those  upon  the  walls  and  roofs  of  the  city.  This  was  only 
one  more  of  the  barbarous  outrages  which  will  forever  stain 
with  infamy  the  Roman  name,  and  more  especially  the 
names  of  Titus  and  Vespasian.  The  Zealots  made  use  of 
that  occurrence  to  prove  that  no  Roman's  promise  was  re- 
liable, and  that  desertion  from  the  city  was  to  run  into  the 
jaws  of  inevitable  death. 

14.     The  Romans  Once  More  Defeated. 

jNIeanwhile,  the  construction  of  siege  works  was  steadily 
continued  by  the  enemy,  and  the  Zealots  lost  none  of  their 
daring  bravery.  The  young  King  of  Cammagena  came 
with  a  band  of  young  warriors  to  assist  the  Romans.  He 
thought  it  was  easy  for  his  warriors,  Avho  were  trained  in 
Macedonian  tactics,  to  take  the  city,  and  tried  his  skill  by 
an  assault  upon  the  wall.  But  he  soon  discovered  that 
those  upon  the  wall  were  his  superiors  in  the  figlit,  and  see- 
ing his  men  wounded  and  falling  in  large  numbers,  he  was 
forced  to  beat  a  retreat.  Nor  had  the  Romans  the  courage 
to  take  any  portion  of  the  walls  by  storm.  After  fifteen 
da3's'  hard  work,  the  Fifth  and  Twelfth  Legions  had  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  two  embankments  opposite  the  wall  con- 
necting Fort  Antonia  with  the  eastern  wall  near  the  Fish- 
pond, while  the  Tenth  and  Fifteenth  Legions  erected  simi- 
lar works  near  the  Acra  wall  at  the  northeastern  pond. 
Now  the  engines  were  mounted  and  all  was  ready  for  the 
attack.  John,  however,  had  constructed  a  mine  from 
within  to  a  point  under  the  Roman  works,  filled  it  with  all 
kinds  of  combustibles,  and  set  it  on  fire.  The  embank- 
ments, men  and  engines  fell  down  with  a  terrible  crash, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  all  was  enveloped  in  flames.  So  this 
scheme  to  take  the  Temple  Mount  proved  disastrous  to  the 
Romans.  Two  days  later,  Simon  made  an  attack  on  the 
other  works  of  the  enemy,  and  a  most  furious  engagement 
was  fought,  which  ended  with  the  destruction  of  the  Ro- 
mans' works  and  engines,  and  a  severe  chastisement  in- 
flicted on  them.  They  were  very  much  discouraged  by  the 
furious  bravery  and  alacrity  of  their  enemies,  and  the  sud- 
den destruction  of  all  the  works  raised  with  so  much  sacri- 
fice and  exertion. 


THE    DESTRUCTION   OF   JERUSALEM.  359 

15.    A  Wall  to  Isolate  the  City. 

A  council  of  war  was  convoked  by  Titus,  in  which  his 
opinion  prevailed,  that  the  city  could  not  be  taken  and  its 
inhabitants  could  not  be  prevented  from  bringing  ^^^'ovi- 
sions  into  it,  as  the  area  was  too  large  to  be  blockaded,  and 
the  subterranean  passages  too  many  to  be  guarded.  It  was 
resolved  that  famine  only  could  overcome  the  defenders  of 
Jerusalem,  and  therefore,  a  wall  to  encompass  the  whole 
city  was  necessar3^  A  hundred  thousand  or  more  of  men 
went  to  work  to  erect  the  wall.  The  work  progressed  rap- 
idly, as  it  was  built  at  a  distance  from  the  city,  not  to  be 
reached  by  any  of  the  three  hundred  and  thirty  engines 
worked  upon  the  wall.  As  the  wall  progressed,  so  did  the 
famine  in  the  city.  The  warriors  became  unable  to  under- 
take any  more  sallies.  Persons  died  in  large  numbers  from 
starvation,  and  the  dead  bodies  were  thrown  over  the  wall. 
Graduall}^  this  also  was  neglected,  the  dead  remained  in  the 
city  and  added  to  the  many  miseries,  the  stench  and  pesti- 
lence from  the  decaying  bodies. 

16.     Terror  Within  and  Slaughter  Without. 

When  Titus  saw  that  the  crucifixion  of  deserters  did  him 
no  good,  he  again  permitted  them  to  pass  through  his  lines. 
A  rumor  was  started  that  the  Hebrew  deserters  leaving 
their  homes  swallowed  gold  and  gems  to  get  them  out  of 
the  city,  the  Arabs  and  Syrians  captured  the  deserters  and 
ripped  them  open  to  seek  treasures  in  their  bowels.  So 
hundreds,  or  perhaps  thousands,  lost  their  lives,  till  Titus 
prevented  it  and  gave  free  passage  to  all  deserters.  No 
doubt  large  'iiumbers  made  use  of  that  privilege,  although 
the  Zealots  treated  the  captured  deserters  or  their  remain- 
ing families  with  merciless  rigor.  One  of  the  ex-high- 
priest's  sons  deserted,  and  this  highpriest,  Matthias  b. 
Theophilus,  was  the  very  man  Avho  opened  the  gates  of  Je- 
I'usalem  for  Simon  and  his  men.  Yet  this  very  Simon  or- 
dered the  execution  of  Matthias  b.  Theophilus  and  his 
three  remaining  sons.  Many  rich  men,  Josephus  maintains, 
were  executed  on  this  or  that  pretext  to  get  hold  of  their 
wealth.  Terror,  anarchy,  pestilence  and  famine,  undoubt- 
edly, drove  many  out  of  the  city,  although  more  of  the 
non-combatants  remained  in  the  city  than  a  prudent  com- 
mander would  have  kept  there.  One  wealthy  woman  ate 
the  flesh  of  her  own  child  which  she  had  seen  perish  of 
starvation,  and  when    the    hungry  warriors  came   to  her 


360  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM. 

house  for  food,  she  angrily  threw  the  remains  of  her  child 
before  them,  which  shocked  even  the  men  used  to  bloodshed 
and  death.  It  was  said  of  another  ver}'-  wealthy  woman,. 
Martha,  the  wife  of  the  slain  highpriest,  Joshua  b.  Gamala, 
that  she  picked  barley  grains  from  the  dung  of  the  horses 
in  the  valley  to  preserve  her  life.  The  most  horrid  scenes 
Avithin  the  city  passed  unnoticed,  as  none  wrote  of  them 
and  few  escaped  to  tell  the  tales  of  woe.  The  seventeenth 
day  of  Tammuz^  however,  was  considered  the  most  mem- 
orable, for  on  that  day  the  dail}?-  sacrifices  in  the  temple 
were  stopped  for  ever.  There  was  nothing  left  to  be  sacri- 
ficed, and  there  were  no  men  to  attend  to  the  divine  ser- 
vice ;  many  of  them  were  slain  and  the  survivors  were  en- 
gaged in  the  defense  of  the  temple.  The  defenders  of  the- 
temple  had  consumed  whatever  there  was  in  the  inner  court, 
wine,  oil  or  flour ;  and  John  had  sold  most  of  the  costly 
vessels  and  utensils  to  sustain  himself. 

17.     A  Useless  Breach  in  the  Wall. 

Under  all  these  miseries,  however,  none  was  permitted' 
to  speak  of  surrendering.  The  Romans  had  raised  new  em- 
bankments opposite  the  wall  of  Fort  Antonia,  and  John 
with  his  men  made  another  attempt  to  destroy  them,  but 
failed  in  accomplishing  it.  The  heavy  rams  played  against 
the  wall  and  one  night  part  of  it  fell  down.  But  to  the 
utter  amazement  of  the  Romans,  the  Zealots  had  erected  a 
new  wall  right  behind  the  one  battered  down.  It  was  a: 
severe  disappointment,  and  Titus  himself  began  to  despair 
of  success.  Some  courageous  soldiers  attempted  to  scale 
the  wall,  and  were  terribly  chastised  by  the  defenders 
above.  Several  other  similar  attempts  were  equally  unsuc- 
cessful. 

18.      The  Romans  on  the  Temple  Mount. 

About  the  time  when  the  daily  sacrifice  in  the  temple 
had  been  stopped,  Titus  began  to  undermine  Fort  Antonia, 
and  made  another  attempt,  with  the  aid  of  Josephus,  to 
persuade  the  Zealots  to  surrender  the  city.  He  failed  in 
this  latter  attempt,  but  succeeded  in  bringing  a  number  of 
chosen  men  into  the  tower  of  Antonia  who,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Cerealis,  made  the  daring  attempt  of  surprising 
the  guards  of  the  temple.  They  were  not  found  asleep,  and 
a  furious  battle  Avas  fought  from  three  to  eleven  in  the 
morning.  It  was  a  drawn  battle,  says  Josephus ;  still  the- 
Romans  retired  Avithout  any  success.     MeauAvhile,  however^. 


THE   DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM.  361 

a  wide  breach  was  made  in  the  tower,  and  the  legions 
inarched  up  to  the  Temple  Mount  and  began  to  throw  up 
embankments  against  the  temple. 

19.  The  Temple  Cloisters  Destroyed, 

Next  day  an  attempt  was  made  by  a  body  of  the  de- 
fenders of  the  temple  to  cut  their  way  through  the  enemy 
on  Mount  Olives.  A  hard-fought  battle  ended  with  the  re- 
treat of  the  Hebrews  back  to  the  Temple  Mount.  The 
cloisters  of  the  temple  on  the  Avest  and  north  were  now  the 
breastworks  of  the  Hebrews.  They  filled  them  with  com- 
bustibles and  retreated  into  the  first  temple  court  (Court 
of  Women).  Many  of  the  Romans  with  ladders  mounted 
the  cloisters  to  take  possession  of  the  position.  When  tho 
roof  was  well  crowded,  the  cloisters  were  fired  and  envel- 
oped the  Romans  in  a  sheet  of  flames,  in  which  many 
perished.  The  next  day  the  Romans  burnt  down  the  eastern 
cloisters  also. 

20.  The  Destruction  of  the  Temple. 

On  the  eighth  day  of  Ah,  the  embankments  being  fin- 
ished, Titus  gave  orders  to  set  on  fire  the  four  gates  on  the 
west  side  and  to  bring  into  action  the  heaviest  rams  against 
the  outer  buildings,  as  six  days'  battering  with  lighter  rams 
had  made  no  impression  on  the  masonr}-,  and  digging  under 
the  northern  gate  had  proved  fruitless,  the  foundations 
being  too  deep  and  too  broad.  Simultaneously  with  this, 
a  general  attack  was  opened  and  became  more  furious  and 
irresistible  with  every  passing  moment.  The  flames  spread 
rapidly,  and  the  warriors  inside  fought  desperately  for 
every  inch  of  ground,  till  every  spot  of  the  temple  court 
was  covered  with  its  slain  champions  and  the  corpses  swam 
in  blood.  Titus  and  his  immediate  lieutenants  succeeded 
in  entering  the  main  building  from  the  east  side,  and  in- 
spected the  sanctum  sanctortim.  Josephus  maintains 
that  Titus  was  inclined  to  save  the  building,  and  gave 
orders  to  the  soldiers  to  put  out  the  fire,  but  the  Hebrews 
fought  those  soldiers  also,  and  by  their  furious  and  incess- 
ant attacks  so  enraged  the  Romans  that  they  became  un- 
manageable and  set  on  fire  the  main  bnikling  also.  How- 
ever, the  passage  in  Sulpicius  Severus  (  Chronicon  xxx.  11, 
6),  which  it  is  supposed  belongs  to  Tacitus,  contradicts  this 
statement  of  Josephus.  It  is  maintained  there  that  in  the 
council  of  war,  Titus  defended  his  opinion  that  the  temple 


o62  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM. 

should  be  deniolislied  in  order  to  extirpate  the  religion  per- 
petuated in  tiiat  structure  (1).  On  the  10th  day  of  Ah,  the 
whole  Temple  Mount  was  one  lake  of  tire,  and  the  Hebrews, 
men,  women  and  children  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand, 
perished  in  the  flames ;  some  by  suicide,  and  most  of  them 
under  the  swords  of  the  enemy.  Except  those  who,  by 
hunger  and  fatigue,  Avere  so  exhausted  that  they  could  ofl'er 
no  resistance,  the  Hebrews  made  the  most  heroic  defense  to 
the  very  last  moment.  One  band  of  Zealots  cut  their  way 
through  the  Roman  legions  and  reached  the  city.  ]>ut  the 
iion-coml)atants,  of  whom  no  less  than  six  thousand  were 
in  the  inner  cloisters,  were  all  massacred  in  cold  blood ; 
€very  building  on  the  temple  mount  was  fired,  every  nook 
and  corner  was  searched  for  plunder,  so  that  many  Romans, 
hi  search  of  pre}^  perished  in  the  flames.  So  God  and 
humanity  were  outraged  by  a  horde  of  furious  savages 
under  the  treacherous  and  insatial)le  Roman  eagle  ;  and  yet 
Josephus  has  made  the  attempt  to  justify  Titus,  and  to  put 
the  blame  chiefly  on  the  Zealots. 

21.      The  Lamentation  of  the  Hebrews. 

Five  hundred  and  eighty-six  years  (516  b.  c.  to  70  a.  c), 
the  sublime  structures  graced  Mount  Moriah.  It  was  the 
pride  and  center  of  all  Israel,  and  the  place,  in  the  belief 
of  all,  where  God's  glory  was  visible  on  earth.  As  a  build- 
ing, it  was  the  most  renowned  in  the  world ;  as  a  center  of 
intelligence,  it  was  the  only  place  where  the  great  doctrine 
of  Monotheism  and  its  sublime  ethics  were  preserved  and 
promulgated. _  Princes,  kings  and  emperors,  philosopher^, 
and  men  of  piety,  had  honored  and  ornamented  it ;  millions 
of  all  nations  and  tongues  had  knelt  in  its  courts  and  wor- 
shiped the  ISIost  High  ;  every  spot  of  it  was  holy  by  his- 
torical reminiscences  and  the  sanctifving  feelings  of  wor- 
shiping multitudes.  There  stood  on  Mount  Morijih  the  vic- 
tory of  genius,  the  triumph  of  spirit,,  the  glory  of  truth,  the 
pride  and  center  of  Israel.  And  now  it  was  enveloped  in 
flames,_its  ground  covered  with  the  blood  and  bodies  of  its 
champions.  The  savage  cries  of  the  plundering  and  slay- 
ing hordes,  the  moans  and  shrieks  of  the  dying  women  and 
children,  mingling  with  the  horrid  lamentation  resounding 
from  all  parts  of  the  city,  were  terribly  re-echoed  from  the 
mountains  and  valleys  far  and  wide,  as  far  as  Mount  Mo- 
riah could  be  seen.     The  flood  of  tears   shed  was,  perhaps, 

(1)    See  Jacob  Bernay's  ueber  die  Chronik  des  Sulpicius  Severus. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM.  363 

as  large  as  the  flood  of  blood,  and  the  sorrows  of  the  living 
were  more  painful  than  those  of  the  d^'ing.  So  on  the  same 
day  as  the  temple  of  Solomon  was  destroyed,  from  the 
ninth  to  the  tenth  day  of  Ah,  the  second  temple  also  fell; 
and  the  people  of  Israel  still  fasts  and  mourns  on  the  ninth 
day  of  Ab. 

22.     The  Fall  of  Ziox. 

The  bridge  between  the  temple  and  Zion  was  broken  off, 
and  the  garrison  of  the  city  asked  of  Titus  the  privilege  of 
leaving  with  their  wives  and  children  for  the  wilderness. 
This  did  not  suit  the  bloodthirsty  son  of  Vespasian,  and  he 
refused;  he  demanded  unconditional  surrender,  which 
meant  death  or  life-long  slavery.  The  Zealots  refused  to 
surrender.  Some  of  the  great  men,  and  among  them  also 
the  Izatus  famih^  of  the  royal  blood  of  Adiabene,  surren- 
dered and  were  sent  in  chains  to  Rome.  On  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  days  of  Ah,  Ophel  and  Acra  were  set  on  fire. 
The  siege  of  Zion  was  continued  to  the  twentieth  day  of 
Ah,  when  the  west  side  wall  was  attacked.  Many  of  the 
besieged  fled,  many  were  killed  inside  because  they  planned 
a  surrender,  and  the  others  offered  as  stout  a  resistance  as 
if  pestilence  and  famine  and  fatigue  had  no  influence  on 
their  bodies.  Under  miseries  and  horrors  indescribable, 
Zion  was  defended  to  the  eighteenth  day  of  Ellul,  when  a 
breach  was  made  in  the  wall  and  the  Romans  entered  Zion. 
Now  the  carnage  and  plundering  began,  and  fire  finished 
the  work  of  horrid  destruction.  Next  day  Titus  com- 
manded not  to  slay  non-combatants,  but  it  was  after  all 
"who  were  too  old,  too  3'oung  or  too  infirm  to  be  used  as 
slaves  had  been  slain.  The  young  men  were  sent  into 
the  Egyptian  mines,  although  eleven  thousand  of  those  cap- 
tives perished  from  want  of  food,  most  of  them  voluntarilj^ 
preferring  death  to  slavery.  The  most  stately  men  were 
carried  captives  with  Titus  to  be  preserved  for  the  triumph 
or  the  arena.  Women,  lads  and  men  were  sold  to  the  slave 
traders  and  dragged  into  various  countries.  Some  of  the 
warriors  escaped  by  subterranean  passages,  others  failed  in 
the  same  attempt,  and  among  the  latter  were  Simon  b.  Gorion 
and  John  of  Gischala,  both  of  whom  were  sent  in  chains  to 
Rome.  Simon  was  preserved  for  the  triumph  and  was  then 
slain,  and  John  was  condemned  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
The  whole  number  of  captives  taken  during  the  war  was 
97,000,  and  the  number  slain  was  1,100,000.  There  were 
among  them  a  very  large  proportion  of  Judaized  Gentiles. 
One-tenth  of  the  whole  Hebrew  people,  and  one-sixth,  per- 


364  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   JERUSALEM. 

haps,  of  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine  perished  in  that  war. 
Witli  the  numerous  emigrants  who  had  left  the  country  dur- 
ing that  period,  there  were,  perhaps,  no  more  than  four  mil- 
lions of  Hebrews  left  in  all  Palestine.  And  now  Zion  and  Je- 
rusalem were  deserted,  and,  mostly  in  ruins,  the  surround- 
ing towns  and  plantations  were  no  more,  and  the  Hebrew 
people  bled  from  a  thousand  wounds.  It  was  crushed,  aix 
object  of  hatred  and  scorn,  and  mourned  hopelessly. 

23.     The  Holy  Vessels  and  Treasures. 

Whatever  was  above  ground  on  Mount  Moriah,  archives, 
treasures,  precious  vessels,  spices  and  costly  materials,  was 
certainly  consumed  in  the  conflagration,  with  the  excep- 
tion, perhaps,  of  what  the  soldiers  took  as  spoil.  Some  of 
the  vessels  and  treasures  hidden  under  ground  were  deliv- 
ered to  Titus  by  a  priest  called  Jesus  b.  Thebuthus  and 
Phineas,  the  treasurer,  to  ransom  their  lives.  These  _ tro- 
phies, described  by  Josephus  (Wars  iv.,  viii.  3  and  yii.,  v. 
5),  among  them  also  a  Scroll  of  the  Law,  were  carried  in  the 
triumph  of  Titus  in  Rome  to  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Capi- 
tolinus.  It  is  maintained  in  the  Talmud  {MeHlaJi  17  b) 
that  R.  Eliezer  b.  Jose,  some  time  after  138  a.  c,  saw  there 
the  curtain  from  the  temple.  Presentations  of  those  vessels 
are  still  on  the  Titus  Arch  in  Rome. 

24.     Other  Barbarities  of  Titus. 

When  the  army  found  no  more  corpses  to  strip  and  no 
more  people  to  plunder  and  slay,  says  Josephus  naively, 
Titus  ordered  the  demolition  of  the  entire  city,  except  the 
western  wall  and  three  towers,  left  there  the  Tenth  Legion, 
under  command  of  Trentius  Rufus,  rewarded  and  lauded 
his  soldiers,  and  then  left  for  Ca^sarea,  and  then  for  Ca^sa- 
rea  Philippi,  where  he  enjoyed  the  pleasures  of  games  and 
shows.  The  captives,  to  the  number  of  twenty-five  hun- 
dred, were  thrown  before  wild  beasts  or  forced  to  kill  one 
another  in  wild  combat.  He  next  went  to  Berytus,  where 
tliose  games  were  repeated,  and  a  still  larger  number  of 
captives  were  sacrificed.  That  was  Roman  chivalry  and 
the  lauded  generosity  of  Titus.  If  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem 
and  its  temple,  the  "blood  of  the  massacred  thousands  of 
women,  children  and  hoary  heads  did  not  give  the  lie  to  all 
who  praised  Roman  civilization  and  tlie  humanity  of  Ves- 
pasian and  Titus,  this  outrageous  slaughter  of  captives 
must  certainly  have  done  it.  Humanity  revolts  at  the  mere 
recollection  of  the  atrocious  brutalism. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM.  365 

25.     In     ANTiof'H     and  Alexandria. 

The  fall  of  Jerusalem  encouraged  the  enemies  of  the 
Hebrews  in  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  aiid  they  asked 
Vespasian  and  Titus  to  ostracise  the  Hebrews  of  those 
<;ities.  In  Antioch  a  plot  and  false  accusation  against 
the  Hebrew  was  enacted.  But  the  new  emperor  and  his 
son  did  not  grant  those  petitions,  and  the  rights  of  the  He- 
brews there  remained  as  they  had  been.  Vespasian  and 
then  Titus  returned  to  Rome,  and  were  honored  there  with 
a  triumph,  which  Josephus  described  with  all  the  servile 
adulation  of  a  faithful  slave. 

26.     Herqdion,  Macherus  and  Masada. 

When  Titus  had  left  Palestine  the  surviving  Hebrew 
warriors  still  held  three  fortified  cities,  viz. :  Herodion,  near 
Jerusalem,  Macherus,  on  the  southern  line  of  Perea,  and 
Masada,  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Dead  Sea.  The  first 
governor  of  Palestine  appointed  by  Titus,  Cerealis,  did  not 
take  those  places.  His  successor  (71  a.  c),  Lucilius  Bas- 
sus,  took  Herodion,  and  after  a  desperate  struggle  also 
Macherus,  which  was  held  by  Eleasar,  while  the  citadel  was 
commanded  by  Juda  b.  Jair,  who  had  distinguished  himself 
in  Jerusalem.  The  most  desperate  and  most  skillful  com- 
bat took  place  before  Masada,  conducted  on  the  part  of  the 
Romans  by  Flavins  Sylva,  the  successor  of  Bassus,  and  on 
the  part  of  the  Hebrews  by  Eleazar  b.  Jair.  When  the 
last  hope  of  successful  defense  had  vanished,  the  nine  hun- 
dred inhabitants  slew  one  another,  and  when,  the  next 
morning,  the  Romans  entered  the  city,  they  found  their 
corpses  and  but  two  old  women  alive.  This  was  the  last  act 
of  the  drama.  It  closed  with  the  death  of  the  heroes  of 
Masada,  who  would  not  violate  their  oath  of  freedom  or 
death. 

27.     After  the  Catastrophe. 

Many  of  the  Zealots  fled  to  Parthia,  Arabia,  Egypt  and 
Cyrene,  and  continued  to  struggle  against  Rome.  Nor  did 
tlie  Hebrews  of  Palestine  consider  themselves  vanquished. 
They  took  up  the  mighty  struggle  again  and  again.  At  that 
moment,  however,  the  war  was  over  for  the  time  being. 
Vespasian  commanded  that  all  the  land  of  Judea,  which  in- 
cluded Idumea  and  Perea,  should  be  sold  to  the  highest 
bidders,  who  should  hold  it  only  as  feudal  land ;  a  large 
portion  thereof  was  given  to  Roman  soldiers,  to  Josephus, 


366  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM. 

and,  perhaps,  also  to  other  favorites  of  the  em})eror;  tliat 
no  city  shoukl  be  built  again  in  that  country;  and  that 
the  taxes  paid  to  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  should  hence- 
forth be  paid  by  the  Hebrews  to  the  Temple  of  Jupiter 
Capitolinus.  Shortly  after,  the  Onias  Temple  in  Egypt  was 
also  closed  for  ever.  Vespasian  certainly  believed  that  he 
had  destroyed  both  the  political  and  religious  existence  of 
the  Hebrews.  It  was  in  his  power  to  destroy  temples,  cities 
and  armies,  but  not  tlie  spirit,  which  remained  the  invisi- 
ble and  invincible  rock  and  center  of  the  Hebrew  people. 
Tliat  spirit  of  truth  outlived  the  house  of  Flavius,  the  Ro- 
man Empire,  and  will  outlive  all  dynasties  and  empires. 

28.      A  Retrospect. 

Whether  Josephus  was  a  traitor  or  a  patriot  will  forever 
remain  undecided,  although  the  favors  bestowed  on  him  by 
Vespasian,  the  large  estates  given  him  by  the  emperor,  and 
the  home  he  enjoyed  in  the  imperial  palace,  perhaps  prove 
that  he  always  served  the  interests  of  Rome  at  the  expense 
of  his  people.  But  his  entire  party  did  so  right  from  the 
beginning,  and  it  can  not  be  said  that  their  motives  were 
not  patriotic.  Like  his  party,  Josephus  also  deceived  the 
Zealots.  The  wrongs  of  Avhich  he  was  personally  guilty 
were,  that  he  did  not  lay  down  his  command  when  the  dele- 
gates brought  him  the  order  to  that  effect  from  the  central 
authority  in  Jerusalem  ;  that  he  remained  with  Titus  in  the 
dul)ious  character  of  an  informer  or  pacificator ;  and  that 
he  described  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple  more  in 
a  triumphant  than  in  the  mourning  tone  of  a  Hebrew  pa- 
triot. Still,  the  man  who  afterward  wrote  the  history  of  his 
people  with  so  much  research,  skill  and  affection  can  hardly 
be  branded  as  a  traitor.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Agrippa 
II.  and  his  sister,  Berenice.  They  adhered  to  the  peace 
party  from  beginning  to  end,  and  remained  in  Rome  the 
favorites  also  of  the  imperial  house  of  Flavius.  Titus 
would  certainly  have  married  Berenice,  if  the  Roman 
grandees  had  not  been  so  bitterly  opposed  to  it,  and  he  was 
finally  forced  to  send  her  out  of  his  palace  and  of  Rome. 
The  same  is  true  of  Rabin  Jochanan  b.  Saccai,  his  disci- 
ples, the  Hillel  Pharisees  and  the  House  of  Hillel.  All  of 
them  were  opposed  to  the  war,  and  left  the  Zealots  to  their 
own  fate.  It  is  evident  that  they  commenced  the  recon- 
struction in  Jamnia  without  molestation,  hence  the  govern- 
ment must  have  favored  them  directly  or  indirectl}' ;  and  it 
Avas  there  and  then  that  the  Bathhol  decided  all  disputed 
halachoth  (with  a  few  exceptions)  in  favor  of  the  Hillelites, 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    JERUSALEM.  367 

SO  that  the  Shammaites  and  Zealots,  whatever  remained  of 
them,  were  excluded  from  the  reconstruction  of  Judaism. 
This  was  an  effectual  declaration  that,  like  Josephus,  Agrippa 
and  compatriots,  the  Hillelites  did  not  sympathize  with  the 
Shammaites  and  Zealots  (2).  Yet  they  could  not  justly  be 
called  traitors,  as  they  acted  on  inherited  principles,  viz. : 
that  the  laws  and  religion  of  Israel  were  the  main  treasures 
to  be  guarded  and  rescued  ;  it  matters  not  who  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  political  machinery.  Therefore,  it  must  forever 
remain  undecided  which  party  was  the  main  cause  of  the 
great  calamity.  Had  the  peace  party,  with  its  far-seeing 
statesmen  and  its  predominance  of  the  religious  idea,  pre- 
vailed, Jerusalem,  the  temple  and  the  Hebrew  common- 
wealth might  have  been  preserved  to  rise  again  to  imj^ort- 
ance.  Had  the  peace  party  not  weakened  and  obstructed 
the  Zealots  and  the  war  party,  had  the  whole  Hebrew  peo- 
ple been  a  unit  and  armed  earnestly  for  a  war  of  independ- 
ence after  the  defeat  of  Cestius  Callus,  they  might  have 
driven  the  Romans  out  of  Asia,  and  history  would  have 
taken  quite  another  turn.  At  all  events,  none  will  dare 
condemn  those  death-defying  warriors  who  fought  like  lions 
and  died  like  demi-gods  for  an  idea.  Generation  after  gen- 
eration suffered  and  submitted  to  the  obnoxious  foreign 
yoke ;  when  the  wrongs  had  become  insufferable,  they  rose 
like  men,  fought  like  patriots,  and  died  like  Hebrews.  Who 
will  dare  condemn  heroic  champions  of  a  sublime  idea  in 
their  graves?  Our  feelings  are  with  the  Zealots,  who  would 
certainly  not  have  committed  the  outrages  chronicled  by 
Josephus,  for  they  fought  for  an  idea,  had  not  the  peace 
party  betrayed  them  from  the  beginning  and  the  foreign  in- 
vaders driven  them  to  desperation.  They  were,  perhaps, 
wrong  in  principle,  and  laid  too  much  stress  on  the  political 
idea;  but  they  were  great  in  the  execution,  great  in  fact. 
Compare  theni  to  the  fighting  men  of  Cromwell,  the  Amer- 
ican and  French  revolutions,  and  condemn  them  if  you  can. 
We  honor  their  memory.  They  closed  the  history  of  the 
Hebrew^s'  second  commonwealth  with  immortal  glory. 


(2)  The  story  narrated  in  the  Talmud,  that  Vespasian  wanted  to 
slay  Gamliel,  the  son  of  Simon  b.  Gamliel,  but  R.  Jnehanan  b.  Saccai 
saved  him,  is  very  uucertain,  as  is  the  denth  of  Simon  by  the  Ro- 
mans. Had  not  the  Hillel  family  enjoyed  the  favor  of  Vespasian  and 
Titus,  how  could  that  very  Gamliel  have  become  Nnf^si  a  few  years 
alter 'the  catastrophe?  Or  how  did  the  family  acquire  the  great 
wealth  for  which  it  was  distinguished?  Gamliel's  power  and  wealth 
from  and  after  80  b.  c,  are  noticed,  Berachoth  27  h,  Yerushalmi  and 
elsewhere. 


368  THE    INHERITANCE. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


The  InJierltance. 


1.     Ruins  and  Recollections. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  have  rolled  over  that  classical 
land  since  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  3'et  every  one  of  its 
prominent  spots  has  been  retained  in  the  memory  of  the 
civilized  world.  There  are  Hebron,  Jerusalem  and  -Jericho, 
Bethel,  Bethlehem  and  Shechem,  Samaria,  Tiberias,  Csesarea 
and  Ptolemais,  all  well  known  to  us  to-day ;  and  there  are 
the  numerous  ruins  identified  or  unidentified,  all  testifying 
to  the  facts  of  history  connected  with  the  various  spots,  and 
animating  the  hearts  of  thousands  with  sentiments  of  admi- 
ration for  a  glorious  past,  never  to  be  obliterated  from  the 
memory  of  man,  especially  of  those  whose  ancestors  were 
the  actors  in  the  grand  drama.  Why  did  the  Hebrews, 
in  eighteen  centuries  of  wrongs  and  miseries,  not  give  up 
their  identity?  Because  truth  preserves  its  own  apostles  ; 
and  because  such  recollections  can  never  be  forgotten.  A 
great  history  is  the  Hebrews'  indestructible  inheritance. 

2.     The  Coins. 

Other  monuments  which  testify  to  the  truth  of  history 
are  the  coins  preserved  in  various  Numismatic  collections, 
described  last  by  Dr.  M.  A.  Levy  (1).  There  are  extant 
coins  of  Simon,  the  Asmonean,  and  of  his  descendants, 
viz. :  John  Hyrcan,  .Juda  Aristobul,  Alexander  Jannai. 
Queen  Salome  and  Antigonus  ;  the  coins  between  the  reign  of 
Queen  Salome  and  that  of  her  grandson  are  missing.  Next 
came  the  coins  of  Herod  I.,  his  three  sons,  Archelaus,  Antipas 
and  Philip,  and  his  grandsons,  Agrippa  I.  and  Herod  of 


Gcschichte  der  juedischen  Muenzen,  etc.,  Leipzig,  1862. 


THE    INHERITANCE.  369 

Chalcis  ;  alsoof  Agrippa's  son,  Marcus  Agrippa,  Kingof  Chal- 
cis.  No  coins  are  extant  of  Agrippa  II.  From  the  period 
of  the  last  war  two  kinds  of  coins  are  extant ;  the  one  bears 
the  name  of  Eleasar,  the  priest,  and  the  other  of  Simon, 
the  prince,  dated  the  first  or  second  year  of  the  liberation 
of  Jerusalem.  All  effigies  on  these  coins  are  either  vessels 
of  the  temple,  the  staff  of  Aaron,  the  vine,  palm,  or  dates 
in  baskets;  and  all  inscriptions  are  in  Greek  or  ancient  He- 
brew letters,  the  wdiole  alphabet  of  wliich  has  been  recov- 
ered from  these  coins,  except  the  Tetli^  Samech  and  Pai. 
All  coins  with  the  Hebrew  square  letters  are  counterfeits. 

3.     The  Culture. 

The  culture  of  the  Hebrews  was  not  extinguished  with 
their  national  capital  and  sanctuary.  The  fugitives  and 
the  deported  ones  carried  out  to  Parthia,  Arabia,  Asia 
Minor,  to  the  Caucasus,  as  well  as  to  Spain,  the  lower  Dan- 
ube and  the  Rhine,  the  rich  culture  of  an  ancient  and 
unique  civilization,  distinguished  not  only  in  advanced 
agriculture  and  pomology,  in  the  domestic  arts  of  building, 
Aveaving,  dyeing,  forging  implements  and  arms,  in  medical, 
juridical  and  political  knowledge  and  experience  :  but  also 
in  the  highest  ideas  of  man  concerning  God,  duty,  and  the 
destiny  and  dignity  of  man.  Those  fugitives  and  exiles 
carried  new  elements  of  culture  to  the  nations  among 
whom  they  came,  and  left  their  home,  although  vanquished 
and  largely  devastated,  in  a  state  of  high  culture,  with 
many  populous  centers  of  industry  and  commerce,  seats  of 
learning  and  religion,  like  Jamnia,  Tiberias,  Sepphoris, 
Bethar,  Usha,  Lydda,  Bene  Berak.  It  was  said  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Bethar,  that  they  rejoiced  over  the  fall  of  Jerusalem, 
so  that  Bethar  might  be  the  largest  city  in  the  country. 

4.     The  Law. 

The  intellectual  force  of  the  Hebrews,  especially  from 
and  after  the  period  of  the  revolution,  was  most  actively 
applied  in  the  making  of  laws.  That  system  of  laws, 
which  was  afterward  compiled  and  expounded  in  the  col- 
lections called  Mishnah,  Tosephta,  MecMlta,  Sajyhra, 
Siphri,  and  to  a  large  extent  also  in  the  two  Talmuds  of 
Jerusalem  and  Babylon,  also  called  "  The  Oral  Law" 
(mQ  hvy^  n-iin),  had  been  produced  and  developed  in  the  sec- 
ond commonwealth  by  legislative  enactments,  juridical  de- 
cisions of  officiating  judges,  and  the  opinions  of  learned 
lawyers  (/S'6>j9Aerim  and  To.^naHm).     It  was  characteristic 


370  THE   INHERITANCE. 

of  the  Hebrew  people,  and  especially  of  the  Pharisees,  to 
establish  law,  to  press  evxny  duty  of  man  in  the  form  of 
la\v,  derived  from  or  based  upon  the  Law  of  Moses.  That 
which  is  true  or  good  must  be  done,  and  whatever  must  be 
done  can  not  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  individual;  it 
must  be  expressed  in  the  form  of  law,  obligatory  upon  all. 
'This  was  the  leading  idea  which  led  to  thorough  organiza- 
tion and  uniformity  in  society  and  the  State ;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  it  produced  formalism,  a  paucity  of  free  motives, 
and  that  anxiety,  to  do  everything  so  and  not  otherwise,  in 
that  particular  time,  place  and  manner,  which  by  a  change 
of  circumstances  often  proved  destructive  to  the  very  object 
and  purpose  of  the  law.  These  national  laws  were  pre- 
served in  the  memory  of  the  doctors  and  in  "  Private 
Scrolls  "  (onnD  m!?Jo)-  Ii^  these  private  scrolls,  the  laws 
and  opinions  were  undoubtedly  grouped  about  the  Penta- 
teuch passages,  from  which  they  were  supposed  to  have 
been  derived  (no^sn  u^iid),  to  which  were  added  the  general 
laws  (nt3rj'2  n^bn)  ^^s  constructed  by  the  doctors  of  law. 
These  private  scrolls  naturally  must  have  contained  a  vast 
number  of  private  and  conflicting  opinions  on  subjects  not 
referring  to  public  law.  In  Jamnia,  however,  where  the 
Bath  kol  abrogated  the  laws  of  the  Shammaites,  the 
majority  rule  (monS  D'3n  ""inx)  was  established,  so  that  all 
laws,  customs  or  observances  had  to  be  henceforth  prac- 
ticed according  to  the  decision  of  the  majority  of  the  San- 
hedrin.  This  deprived  the  private  scrolls  of  their  worth 
and  authority,  and  they  were  graduall}-  suppressed  and 
lost,  merged  in  the  ancient  rabbinical  literature.  This  ma- 
jorit}^  rule  directed  against  prevailing  sectarianism,  and  the 
disputes  of  the  rabbis  of  the  last  eighty  years,  brought 
unity  and  uniformity  to  the  surviving  Hebrews  ;  but  it  was, 
in  many  instances,  hostile  to  free  research  and  development. 
It  made  of  the  remaining  Hebrews  a  compact  congregation, 
and  provided  them  with  a  portable  Palestine,  although  it 
,overruled  private  opinion  and  pressed  the  mind  in  the  nar- 
row forms  of  law.  However,  the  public  laws,  inherited  of 
the  Hebrews'  Second  Commonwealth,  are  the  lasting  monu- 
ments of  an  advanced  civilization.  This  is  especially  the 
case  with  the  criminal  law,  which  is  far  superior  to  the  Ro- 
man law,  and  stands  upon  the  height  of  humanitarian  doc- 
rine. 

5.     The  Agada. 

The   Hebrew    mind    was    not   entirely  ingulfed  in  the 
law  or  halachaJi.     The  Prophets  and   afterward  also  the 


THE   INHERITANCE.  371 

Hagiography,  were  read  and  expounded  in  the  syna- 
gogues and  academies  ;  and  in  these  books  themselves  is 
the  beginning  of  the  Agada  or  Hagadah.  The  term  is 
derived  from  Nagad..  and  in  the  Hebrew  HipJiil  or  Ara- 
maic A'phel  form  signifies  to  narrate,  to  tell,  to  communi- 
cate. 1'lie  noun  which  actually  means  narrative,  that  which 
is  told,  communicated  or  spoken,  has  been  adopted  to  des- 
ignate speeches  or  addresses,  on  passages  of  scriptures  or 
events  of  history,  to  elucidate  or  illustrate  religious  and  moral 
doctrines.  It  is  the  homily  or  sermon  delivered  in  the  syna- 
gogue or  academy  or  also  on  particular  occasions,  of  which, 
in  most  cases,  only  the  text  and  chief  points  (D'piQ 'C'Nn) 
have  been  committed  to  writing.  The  Mcturgam,  who 
translated  and  expounded  Scriptures  for  the  audience,  Avas 
also  the  preacher.  The  skillful  orators  were  called  ^{^nJ^{  "~i?0) 
"  Masters  of  the  Agada."  The  books  or  scrolls  in  which 
the  material  was  preserved  were  called  NmJN  nsD,  "  Books 
of  the  Agada,"  afterward  plainly  sn"i3X  or  j>>-nj3.  All  forms 
of  poetry  were  resorted  to  for  illustration  and  ornamenta- 
tion, so  that  the  Agada  or  Midrash  graduall}'-  became  a 
variegated  flower  garden  of  truth  and  fiction,  sublime  doc- 
trines of  religion  and  ethics,  philosophy  and  science,  framed 
in  fantastical  fabrics  of  fiction.  In  aftertimes  the  Agada 
was  subjected  to  thirty-two  hermeneutic  rules  by  Kabbi 
Eleasar,  son  of  Rabbi  Jose,  the  Galilean ;  nevertheless,  it 
always  remained  more  or  less  a  free  exercise  of  ingenuity 
and  wit,  of  religious,  ethical  or  philosophical  genius.  The 
authors  of  Aboth,  Aboth  of  Rabbi  Nathan,  and  Pirkei 
Rabbi  Eliezer,  convey  the  idea  that  the  system  and  main 
material  of  the  Palestinean  Agada  was  a  traditional  inheri- 
tance from  the  Hebrews'  Second  Commonwealth.  This  is 
also  evident  by  the  numerous  Agada  productions  of  R. 
Jochanan  b.  Saccai,  his  disciples  and  colleagues,  and  such 
other  teachers  who  lived  and  taught  before  and  immediately 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  Their  sayings  and  illustrations 
are  characteristic  for  strength  and  beauty,  and  bear  the 
stamp  of  antiquity.  If  the  best  portion  of  the  Palestinean 
Agada  had  not  been  inherited  from  the  Second  Common- 
wealth, it  would  not  have  been  adopted  so  largely  in  the 
New  Testament,  not  onh^  in  the  Gospels,  but  also  in  the 
Epistles,  and  the  system  would  not  have  so  extensively  in- 
fluenced the  fathers  of  the  Church.  Besides  it  is  well 
known  that  the  Hillelitos  and  Shammaites  also  discussed 
some  of  the  main  Agada  problems  (2).     No  Agada  books 

(2)     Eruhin  13  h ;  HoM'^ah  12  a;  Rosh  Hashanah  16  b;  end  of  Aboth^ 
E.  Nathan,  and  Ibid,  end  of  Perek  II. 


<y,l  THE    INHERITANCE. 

from  the  second  commonwealth  are  now  extant,  except 
those  of  the  Apocrypha,  Philo  and  the  Alexandrian  He- 
))rew  poets.  Pikkei,  Rabbi  Eliezer,  was  re-written  by  Mar 
Samuel  in  the  third  century  ;  Aboth  Rabbi  Natlian  was 
written  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  and  Ahoth  itself 
somewhat  later.  The  inherited  material  is  scattered  through 
the  three  Pesikta  books,  also  Mechieta,  Siphri  and  To- 
sephta,  Rabbah  to  Genesis,  and  other  Midrashim  ;  and  es- 
pecially through  the  two  Talmuds  of  Jerusalem  and  Balndon. 
The  names  added  to  respective  passages  are  criteria  that 
they  did  not  originate  later  than  the  lifetime  of  that  par- 
ticular teacher;  but  this  is  no  proof  that  any  such  pass- 
age was  not  much  older  than  the  teacher  who  quotes  or  ex- 
pounds the  tradition,  or  attempts  to  base  it  on  a  Scriptural 
passage.  The  main  material  of  the  Agada,  as  well  as  the 
principal  laws  of  the  Halacha,  was  inherited  from  the 
second  commonwealth. 

6.     The  Sects. 

The  Sadducees  went  under  in  the  catastrophe.  As  a 
class  or  sect,  no  trace  is  left  of  them  after  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem. Here  and  there  a  Sadducee  is  mentioned  in  the 
Talmud  in  controversy  with  a  rabbi,  but  the  term  is  usually 
taken  in  place  of  Min,  sectarian,  Jew-Christian,  or  dis- 
senter. The  Essenes,  with  the  exception  of  their  celebatic 
colonies  west  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  further  to  the  north,  also 
went  under  in  the  catastrophe  or  were  amalgamated  with 
the  Pharisees.  The  celebatic  Essenes  were  non-combatants, 
would  not  even  tolerate  an  armor  among  them,  hated  the 
cities  and  kept  at  a  distance  from  them,  ate  no  animal 
flesh,  had  no  property,  no  families,  hence  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  war.  Philo  says  there  were  altogether  four  tliou- 
sand  of  them  (Mangey's  edition,  Vol.  11.  p.  457-459).  Plin- 
ius,  the  Elder,  in  his  Natural  History  (1.,  v.  Cap.  16  and  17), 
mentions  these  Essenes  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  Poly- 
histor  (xxxv.  7-12)  and  Porphyrins,  in  the  third  century, 
and  Epipiianius,  in  the  fourth,  still  mention  them,  but  it  is 
not  clear  that  they  still  existed,  or  else  Eusebius  must  have 
known  it.  In  the  Talmud  frequent  reference  is  made  to 
such  ascetic  and  peculiar  saints,  but  they  are  never  called 
Essenes.  Hegesippus  (Euseb.  Eccles.  Hist.  iv.  22)  men- 
tions two  more  Jewish  sects,  viz. :  the  Homerobaptists, 
identified  with  the  nnnc^  ^^3iLD  of  the  Talmud,  who  have  not 
become  known  as  a  sect ;  and  the  Masbotheans,  unknown 
in  Jewish  sources.  The  Zealots  and  the  Shammaites  dis- 
appeared after  the  catastrophe,  at  least  in  Palestine.     Only 


THE    INHERITANCE.  373 

here  and  there  a  Shammaite  doctor  is  mentioned  in  the 
Talmud.  The  Hillel  Pharisees  and  the  Christians  only  es- 
caped from  the  catastrophe  to  become,  afterward,  two  an- 
tagonistic heirs  of  the  same  mother. 

7.     Literature. 

The  closing  passage  of  Ecclesiastes  (xii.  9-14)  was  added 
to  that  book  by   the   compilers  of   the   third   part  of  the 
Canon,  a  fit  epilogue  to  the  whole  collection  ;  hence  it  points 
to  the  days  of  Simon,  the  Asmonean  prince.     In  that  epi- 
logue are  mentioned  many  Meshalim,  poetical  productions^ 
DiBREi  Chachamim,  philosophical  pi'oductions,  and  Ba'alei 
A-suPHOTH,  compilers  of  books,  or  grammarians  and  critics, 
authenticating  and  correcting  old  books,  in  connection  with 
a   solemn  warning  against   the    making    of   many   books. 
Therefore,  it  admits  of  no  doubt  that  a  vast  number  of 
books  of  that  period  have  been  lost,  only  a  few  of  which 
have  been  preserved  in  Greek  and  other  translations.     This 
is  also  evident  from  the  Antiquities  of  Josephus,  who  must 
have  had  access  to  books  unknown  now.     Epiphanius  also 
maintains  that  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  received  from  Jeru- 
salem no  less  than  seventy-two  apocryphal  books  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Canon.     It  appears  that  no  book  of  the  Canon 
has  been  lost,  because  Josephus  {contra  Apion  i.  8)  speaks 
of  twenty-two  holy  books,  viz. :  Five  books  of  Moses,  thir- 
teen books  of  the  Prophets,  and  four  books  of  hymns  and 
precepts.      These  books  Ave  re :    1.    Joshua;    2.   Judges;    3. 
Samuel ;    4.  Kings ;    5.    Ruth ;    6.    Esther ;    7.    Chronicles ; 
8.  Isaiah;  9.  Jeremiah;  10.  Ezekiel ;  11.  The  Twelve  Minor 
Prophets ;    12.  Daniel,    and  13.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  only 
that  he  preferred  the  Apocryphal  to  the  Canonical  Ezra. 
The  other  four  books  were  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job,   Eccle- 
siastes and  Canticles  and  Lamentations,  although  it  is  not 
evident  that  he  knew  Canticles.     The  rabbis   shortlv  after 
Josephus  mentioned  the  same  books  of  the  Canon  (Saha 
Bathra  14  h),  only  that  they  count  five  books  of  Moses, 
eight  of  Prophets,  and  nine  books  of   Hagiography,  viz. : 
Ruth,  Psalms,  Job,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes  and  Canticles  and 
Lamentations,  Daniel,  Esther,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  Chron- 
icles, being  also  twenty-two  books.     There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  both  sources  refer  to  the  same  books.     Therefore,  it  is 
certain   that  no  canonical  book    has    been  lost,   although 
passages  of  Prophets  and  Hagiography,  not  guarded  with 
the  same  vigilance  and  zeal  as  the  Pentateuch,  may  have 
been  lost,  changed  or  misplaced.     The  books  lost  were  of 


374  THE    INHERITANCE. 

the  classes  of  the  apocryphal  and  the  profane  literature. 
Among  the  books  lost  must  be  counted  :  1.  "  The  Chroni- 
cles of  the  Highpriests  "  (I.  Maccabees  xvi.  24),  which  were 
the  offijial  records  of  history,  as  were  the  Chronicles  of  the 
kings  of  Judah  or  of  Israel  in  former  days.  2.  The  five 
books  of  Jason  of  Cyrene,  on  the  history  of  the  Maccabees 
(II.  Maccab.  ii.  23).  3.  The  history  of  the  Hebrews  under 
the  Ptolerays,  of  which  the  third  book  of  the  Maccabees  is 
a  fragment.  4.  The  Meguillath  Ta'anith  mentioned  in 
the  Mishnah  {Ta'anith  ii.  8),  a  historical  calendar,  in 
which  were  narrated  the  national  events  distinguishing  cer- 
tain days  of  thj  year  as  national  half  holidays,  when  fast- 
ing or  public  mournings  were  not  permitted  ;  parts  of  this 
lost  book  are  in  the  Meguillath  Ta'anith,  written  at  a 
later  date.  5.  The  Records  of  the  Sanhedrin,  kept  by  the 
two  scribes  of  that  body.  6.  All  the  Meguilloth  Yuch- 
siN,  the  Genealogic  Records,  which  were  kept  with  particu- 
lar care  under  the  supervision  of  the  Sanhedrin,  not  only 
for  the  priests,  but  also  for  laymen.  7.  The  history  of 
Justus  of  Tiberias  and  other  historians  of  that  period  (the 
former  was  extant  in  the  INIiddle  Ages),  mentioned  by  Jose- 
phus  (Life  Go).  8.  The  Maccabean  books  of  the  Hillelites 
a.nd  Shammaites  written  during  or  previous  to  the  last  war, 
of  which  the  extant  Meguillath  Antioohtis  appears  to  be 
a  fragmsnt.  9.  The  first  work  of  Josephus,  to  be  noticed 
below  (3).  10.  Lastly,  Ave  mention  among  the  lost  books  also 
a,  Greek  history  of  the  Jews  mentioned  by  Alexander  Poly- 
histor,  to  which  Josephus  (Antiq.  i.,  xv.)  refers.  He  quotes 
the  words  of  Polyhistor,  thus:  "Cleodemus,  the  prophet, 
who  was  also  called  Malchus,  who  wrote  a  history  of  the 
Jews,  in  agreement  Avith  the  history  of  Moses,  their  legis- 
lator, relates,"  etc.  This  list  of  lost  books  in  one  depart- 
ment of  knowledge  shows  Avhat  amount  of  poetical,  philo- 
sopliical  and  juridical  literature  must  have  been  lost.  We 
record  now  the  literature  preserved. 

8.    The  First  Book  of  the  Maccabees. 

This  book  of  sixteen  chapters,  added  to  the  Septuagint, 
Avas  originally  HebrcAv  or  Aramaic.  Jerome  reports  that  he 
saw  the  HebrcAV  original,  and  Eusebius  preserved  its  title 
as  Sarbeth  Sarbane  El,  which  Avas,  perhaps,  originally 
Sharbath   Sar  Benai   El,  "  The   Descendants  (4)  of  the 

(3)  Concerning  the  lost  work  of  Josephus,  see  preface  to  "  The 
Jewish  AVar." 

(4)  See  Fuerst  in  2"lL''  II.  and  the  Syriac  Shraib. 


THE   INHERITANCE.  375 

Prince  of  the  Lord's  Children,"  referring  to  the  sons  of 
Mattathia,  whose  exploits  the  book  describes.  This  book 
contains,  after  a  brief  review  of  Alexander's  conquests  and 
the  division  of  his  empire  among  his  successors,  the  history 
of  the  Maccabean  revolution  to  the  demise  of  Simon,  with 
all  the  chronological  and  geographical  accounts.  It  is  free 
of  the  miraculous  element,  impartial  in  praise  and  censure, 
brief  and  clear  in  style,  and,  according  to  Dr.  Zunz  (5),  it 
may  be  placed  next  to  the  prophetical  books  of  Samuel  and 
Kings.  Josephus  and  other  historians  have  been  led  by 
First  Maccabees,  and  modern  critics  have  accepted  it  as 
the  authentic  source  of  that  period  of  history.  The  origi- 
nal and  the  name  of  its  author  are  lost,  because  it  had  not 
been  accepted  in  the  Canon,  which  had  been  closed  before. 
It  was  written  during  the  lifetime  of  John  H3^rcan,  as  the 
end  of  the  book  shows,  hence  from  the  Daybooks  of  the 
Highpriests,  the  primary  and  official  sources.  Had  the 
Canon  not  been  closed  before  the  book  appeared,  it  would 
certainly  have  been  added  to  it. 

9.  The  Second  Book  of  the  Maccabees. 

This  book  of  fifteen  chapters,  added  to  the  Septuagint, 
was  originally  Greek.  It  opens  with  an  epistle  addressed  to 
the  Hebrews  of  Egypt  and  to  Aristobul,  tutor  of  the  king, 
by  the  people  and  Sanhedrin,  concerning  the  Ilanukah 
festival  or  Feast  of  Lights  to  be  observed ;  in  which  inter- 
polations are  detectable.  The  main  part  of  the  book  pre- 
tends (ii.  23)  to  be  an  abstract  of  the  five  books  written  by 
Jason  of  C3'rene,  and  narrates  the  history  from  the  coming 
of  Heliodorus  to  Jerusalem  to  the  death  of  Nicanor.  While 
this  book  contains  a  number  of  particulars  explanatory  or 
supplementary  to  the  main  facts  in  the  First  Maccabees,  it 
is  given  so  much  to  the  miraculous  and  dwells  so  often  on 
the  supernatural,  that  its  historical  value  is  impaired. 
Jason  of  Cyrene  wrote  at  a  considerable  distance  from  Pal- 
estine and  from  secondary  reports,  which  he  colored  in  the 
style  of  the  Egyptian  Hebrews  with  the  miraculous  and 
supernatural.  Still  Second  Maccabees,  as  a  supplement  to 
the  first,  is  of  historical  value. 

10.  The  Third  Book  of  the  Maccabees. 

This  book  of  seven  chapters,  added  to  the  Septuagint, 
is  a  fragment  of  a  larger  history  of  the  Hebrews,  and  con- 

(5)     Gottesdienstliche  Vortraege,  p.  123. 


376  THE    INHERITANCE. 

tains  the  histoiy  of  Ptolemy  Philopator,  his  conduct  and 
discomfiture  in  Jerusalem,  his  persecution  of  the  Egyptiart 
Hebrews,  and  their  final  rescue  by  a  miracle.  It  begins  and 
ends  abruptly,  and  closes  with  a  doxology.  It  contains 
history  with  the  Egyptian  colophon,  or  the  stamp  of  Asia 
Minor. 

11.     The  Fourth  Book  of  the  Maccabees  (6). 

This  book,  aJso  called  the  Dominion  of  Reason,  ascribed 
to  Josephus,  is  no  history.  It  contains  some  narratives 
from  the  Maccabean  time,  as  the  stories  of  the  martyr 
Eleazar,  of  Hannah  and  her  seven  sons,  taken  from  Second 
Maccabees.  It  is  a  Greek  sermon,  in  the  style  of  Philo's 
ethical  discourses,  to  harmonize  Scriptural  and  philosophi- 
cal ideas.  It  is  artistically  finished  in  style  and  construc- 
tion, written  and  delivered  before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem^ 
neither  in  Palestine  nor  by  Josephus.  The  author's  name- 
and  place  are  unknown.  It  is  a  monument  of  Hellenistic 
Hebrew  philosophy,  eloquence  and  theological  research,  and 
affords  us  a  better  knowledge  of  Jason  of  Cyrene,  to  whom 
it  frequently  refers.  This  book  was  reviewed  last  by  Dr.  J.. 
Freudenthal  (Breslau,  1869). 

12.     The  Works  of  Josephus. 

One  of  the  most  excellent  legacies  bequeathed  to  pos- 
terity by  the  men  of  the  Hebrews'  Second  Commonwealth 
is  the  work  of  Flavins  Josephus,  consisting  of  four  different 
books,  viz. :  1.  The  Jewish  War ;  2.  The  Antiquities  of  the 
Jews ;  3.  The  Life  of  Flavins  Josephus ;  and  4.  Flavins 
Josephus  against  Apion.  Although  all  these  books  were 
written  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  yet  the  writer  and  the 
material  which  he  compiled  eminently  belong  to  the  pre- 
ceding period.  The  three  books  concerning  the  Jewish 
opnnons  about  God  and  his  essence,  and  about  the  laws, 
and  the  revision  of  his  Jewish  War,  with  a  supplement  to 
the  year  ninety-three,  which  he  promised  to  produce  (end 
of  Antiquities),  were  not  written  or  have  not  reached  pos- 
terity. Josephus  was  an  historian  of  a  superior  order.  His 
information  was  vast  and  varied.  His  presentations  of 
places,  persons  and  occurrences  are  lucid,  graphic,  almost 
approaching  the  plastic.  His  details  are  illustrative  of  the 
main  facts,  which  he  always  provides  with  topographical 
and  chronological  support.     His  style  is  not  as  compact  as 

(6)     Translated  in  German,  Leipzig,  1867. 


THE    IJS'HKRITANCE.  377 

that  of  Tacitus,  nevertheless  it  is  nervous  and  classical. 
His  work  is  no  mean  proof  of  what  the  Hebrew  mind  then 
was  in  that  particular  department. 

13.     The  Jewish  War. 

After  Josephus  had  written,  in  the  Hebrew  or  Aramaic 
language,  a  history  of  the  Roman  war  upon  Judea,  and  had 
sent  it  to  the  Hebrews  of  the  East  (this  book  was  lost),  he 
translated  it  into  Greek,  because,  as  he  says  (Wars,  Sec.  1),. 
quite  a  number  of  books  had  been  written  which,  in  his 
estimation,  did  not  come  up  to  the  standard  of  truth.  Those 
books  have  been  lost  and  the  statements  of  Josephus  can 
be  controlled  only  by  his  own  confessions  in  his  autobi- 
ography. Although  he  boasts  (Life  5)  that  the  Emperor  Titus 
declared  this  the  only  authentic  bock  on  the  war  in  Judea,. 
and  Agrippa  confirmed  it.  it  is,  nevertheless,  evident  that 
he  did  flatter  and  lionize  the  Romans,  and  unjustly  decry 
and  defame  the  so-called  robbers  and  Zealots.  The  Greek 
translation  before  us  consists  of  seven  books,  each  book  is 
divided  into  chapters,  and  each  chapter  into  paragraphs.  It 
begins  with  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  gives  a  brief 
account  of  events  to  the  time  of  Herod  and  his  included^ 
furnishes  a  meager  record  of  his  successors,  and  begins  a 
detailed  history  with  Florus  (Book  II.,  xiv.),  who  was  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  war.  He  closes  his  narratives  with 
the  year  73,  and  published  this  work  in  the  year  75.  The 
book  was  originally  written  Avhile  that  war  Avas  fresh  in  his 
memory;  he  was  under  many  obligations  to  Vespasian^ 
Titus,  Agrippa  and  others,  and  full  of  strong  prejudices 
against  the  Zealots  and  those  who  denounced  him  as  a 
traitor.  He  partly  confessed  this  in  his  autobiography  and 
by  his  promise  to  revise  the  Jewish  War.  He  did  atone 
for  his  misdeeds  by  his  other  books. 

14.     Antiquities  of  the  Jews. 

This  work  consists  of  twenty  books,  each  divided  into 
chapters  and  these  into  paragraphs.  It  contains  the  history 
from  the  creation,  according  to  the  accounts  of  Moses,  to 
the  coming  of  Florus  to  Palestine,  so  that  his  "  Wars  "  is 
the  continuation  of  his  "  Antiquities."  It  appeared  in  the 
thirteenth  year  of  Domitian,  hence  in  the  year  94  a.  c,  at 
the  solicitation  of  Epaphroditus,  a  Roman  doctor.  It  was 
written  Greek  and  for  Greeks,  to  prove  the  antiquity  and 
expound  the  laws  of  the  Hebrew  people,  not  without  a 
proselytizing  tendency,  as  the  struggle  of   Paganism   and 


S78  THE    INHERITANCE. 

Judaism  was  then  at  its  height  in  Rome.  As  far  as  the 
Bible  contains  the  history,  Josephus  transcribed  it,  with  all 
the  miracles,  except  in  the  Esther,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
stories,  where  he  was  led  by  apocryphal  sources,  added 
thereto  information  from  foreign  sources,  also  spurious 
tales,  as  in  the  life  of  Moses,  and  was  frequently  led  by  the 
Septuagint  rather  than  the  Hebrew  original,  because  he 
wrote  for  Greeks.  From  Nehemiah  to  Florus,  his  sources, 
"besides  the  books  of  the  Maccabees,  are,  for  tlie  most  part, 
unknown,  and  many  of  those  that  were  known  are  lost. 
He  interpreted  the  laws  of  Moses  by  the  practice  and  opin- 
ions of  his  own  days,  deviating  in  a  number  of  cases  from 
the  accepted  halachah.  He,  like  other  classical  writers, 
added  speeches  and  prayers  of  liis  own  comjjosition,  and 
exercised  no  criticism  on  his  original  sources.  With  all  his 
philosophy  he  was  superstitious,  either  in  fact  or  pretension, 
in  regard  to  omens,  predictions,  dreams  and  exorcism,  if 
he  did  not  cling  to  mysticism  for  the  benetit  of  his  Gentile 
readers.  Still  he  was  not  only  a  fiiithful  historian,  but  had 
evidently  the  intention  to  glorify  his  people  in  order  to 
atone  for  the  sins  committed  in  his  "  Wars,"  and  is  more 
liberal  in  bestowing  praise  than  censure.  He  did  color 
facts  but  never  disfigured  them.  In  his  "  Antiquities  "  Jo- 
sephus is  a  patriot  of  profound  feelings,  and  a  ]^riest  with 
Avhom  the  temple,  its  priests  and  rituals  are  by  far  most 
important.  Like  many  historians,  he  neglects  the  life  and 
doings  of  the  people,  and  narrates  the  fate  of  its  rulers, 
priests  and  soldiers.  And  yet  the  Hebrews  have  just  cause 
to  be  proud  of  having  found  such  a  historian,  wliose  words 
have  been  so  well  preserved  and  rendered  in  all  languages 
of  the  civilized  nations. 

15.     The  Life  of  Flavius  Josephus. 

This  book  consists  of  seventy-six  paragraphs,  and  gives 
a  full  account  of  his  life  to  that'time.  It  bears  no  date,  but 
its  closing  i)aragraph  shows  that  it  was  written  during  the 
lite  of  Domitian,  who  had  made  his  land  in  Judea  tax  free, 
punished  his  accusers,  who  appear  to  linve  been  quite 
numerous,  and  even  tlie  Empress  Domitian  is  mentioned  as 
having  bestowed  on  him  great  favors.  Josephus  tells  us  that 
he  married,  the  first  time,  by  commnnd  of  Vespasian,  a 
■captive  Jewess,  whom  he  divorced.  She  left  him  one  son, 
Hyrcan.  Then  he  married  a  Jewess  of  Crete,  of  whom  he 
had  two  sons,  .Justus  and  Simonides  Agripna.  This  "  Life," 
■which  is  an  appendix  to  his  "  Antiquities,"  was  written  as 
a  sort  of  self-defense  against  the   frequent  accusations  pre- 


THE    INHERITANCE.  379 

ferred  against  liim  as  a  traitor  to  both  the  Hebrews  and  the 
Romans.  He  defends  himself  as  well  as  the  case  would 
admit,  especially  against  Justus  of  Tiberias,  and  other  his- 
torians, and  forgets  not  to  prove  his  attachment  and  fidelity 
to  Judaism  as  a  man  and  a  priest.  He  did  considerably 
modif}^  his  statements  made  in  "  ^V^ars  "  twenty  years  be- 
fore, but  he  did  not  tell  the  whole  truth ;  nor  did  he  refer 
to  his  conduct  at  Jotapata. 

16.     Flavius  Josephus  against  Apion. 

If  any  proof  were  necessary  that  Josephus  did  not  aban- 
don Judaism  and  Avas  not  decapitated  by  Domitian,  his 
books  against  Apion  prove  both.  Long  after  his  "  Life," 
about  100  A.  c,  he  wrote  those  two  wonderful  books  in  de- 
fense of  his  people.  They  were  taken  together  under  the 
above  head.  But  the  first  book  of  thirty-five  paragraphs 
was  written  against  those  Greeks  to  whom  he  refers  in  the 
"Antiquities"  xx.,  and  especially  against  Agatharchides, 
Manetho,  Cheremon  and  Lysimachus,  who  denied  the  high 
antiquity  of  the  Hebrews  and  misrepresented  their  history 
and  laws.  The  second  book  of  forty-two  pnragraphs  was 
written  in  refutation  of  what  the  Alexandrian  Apion,  in  the 
time  of  Caligula,  had  written  against  the  Hebrews.  Re- 
markable in  these  books  is  the  earnest  and  calm  tone  as 
well  as  the  overwhelming  force  of  the  argument.  Most  re- 
markable, however,  in  them  is  the  eminent  erudition  of 
Josephus  in  the  classical  literature.  Quite  a  number  of  an- 
cient authors  have  become  known  to  posterity  by  the  quo- 
tations of  Josephus.  The  spirit  of  these  two  books  shows 
that  the  question,  at  that  moment,  excited  the  minds  for 
or  against  Judaism,  and  in  the  closing  paragraphs  of  the 
second  book  he  appears  most  forcibly  as  the  advocate  of 
Judaism  among  the  Gentiles.  His  epilogue  is  written  in  a 
spirit  of  firm  conviction  that  the  w^orld  must  accept  Juda- 
ism as  the  rock  of  salvation,  and  that  vast  multitudes,  as 
w^ell  as  the  philosophers  of  all  ages,  had  embraced  it  ai- 
Teadv,  admired  the  laws  and  institutions  of  Israel,  observed 
the  Sabbath  and  the  dietary  laws,  and  sought  to  imitate 
the  concord  and  justice  of  Israel.  It  is  maintained  that 
Ihese  books  were  written  in  Palestine,  but  none  states  pre- 
•cisely  where  and  when.  Anyhow,  they  must  have  been 
written  a  number  of  years  after  his  "Antiquities  "  and  "  Life," 
hence  about  100  a.  t>.  The  influence  on  the  Gentile  mind 
bv  the  works  of  Josephus  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
They  exercised  none  on  the  Hebrews.     Neither  he  nor  his 


380  THE    INHERITANCE. 

works  are  mentioned  in  Jewish  sources.  None  before  the 
author  of  Josephon  (7)  in  the  Middle  Ages,  defended  him. 
He  was  a  traitor  in  the  estimation  of  his  cotemporaries^ 
and  in  Rome  he  moved  in  the  imperial  circle  too  distant 
from  his  co-religionists  to  be  forgiven.  Still,  whatever  his 
conduct  during  the  war  and  his  misrepresentations  in  tho 
history  thereof  ma}'  have  been,  he  did  atone  for  all  of  them 
by  the  works  described.  When  and  where  he  died  has  re- 
mained unknown. 

17.      Philo  Jud^us. 

Philo  of  Alexandria  (1-60  a.  c),  the  brother  of  the  Ala- 
barch  Alexander,  the  great  disciple  of  Moses  and  Plato, 
was  an  oak  with  its  roots  in  Palestine  and  Greece,  its  trunk 
in  Alexandria,  its  branches  and  foliage  stretching  far  away 
into  the  regions  of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  He  was  per- 
fectly Hebrew  in  his  feelings,  hopes,  faith  and  childlike 
obedience  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  Israel ;  and  perfectly 
Greek  by  education  and  association,  culture  and  learning. 
He  mastered  with  a  wonderful  energy  all  that  Greece  of- 
fered in  letters,  sciences  and  philosoph}'- ;  and  loved  enthu- 
siastically the  intellectual  treasures  of  Palestine.  Like  hi& 
master,  Plato,  to  whose  productions  his  were  compared  in 
beauty  and  depth,  he  Avas  poetically  philosophical;  and 
like  his  other  master,  Moses,  whose  words  he  expounded, 
he  was  a  model  of  ethical  depth  and  metaphysical  sublim- 
ity. Philo  was  the  man  in  whom  the  diverging  cultures  of 
Palestine  and  Greece  were  harmoniously  blended.  In  him,_ 
who,  like  King  Solomon,  was  called  Yedid-yahh,  "  the  be- 
loved one  of  the  Lord,"  the  discursive  and  spontaneous 
reason,  the  philosopher's  and  prophet's  functions  were  uni- 
ted in  one  human  nature.  To  teach  the  great  lesson  of 
reason  and  faith  harmonized  was  the  object  of  his  existence. 
It  is  thC'  quintessence  of  all  his  writings.  Besides  the 
prominence  of  his  family,  his  embassy  to  Caligula,  and  his 
two  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem,  nothing  is  known  of  his  life, 
which  must  have  been  that  of  a  secluded  reasoner.  who 
occasionally  appeared  before  a  select  congregation  as  a 
teacher  and  orator.  So  much  the  better  his  writings  have 
become  known  to  posterity. 

.    18.     The  Works  of  Piiilo. 

The  v;orks  ascrilied  to  Philo  have  not  been  sufficiently 
studied   to  distinguisli   the  autlientic    from  the   interpola- 

(")    pri'DV  by   pspudonymous  Joseph   ben  Gorion,  the  priest,  aa 
quoted  by  Rashi,  and  others,  in  the  twelftli  century. 


THE    INHERITANCE.  381 

lions  (8).  The  Therapeuts,  described  and  lauded  in  one  of 
Pliilo's  books,  have  been  taken  by  Eusebiiis  to  be  Christian 
monks  of  the  second  century.  Passages  have  undoubtedly 
been  interpolated  in  other  books  of  Philo  by  Christian 
Avriters.  Some  of  his  books,  like  two  on  the  Covenant  and 
four  of  the  five  books  on  ''  What  befell  the  Jews  under 
Caius,"  have  been  lost.  Another  number  of  his  books  are 
found  now  in  the  Armenian  onl}-,  and  have  been  published 
with  a  Latin  translation  by  John  Baptist  Aucher,  Venice, 
1822  and  1826.  The  Greek  books  ascribed  to  Philo  are  the 
following :  1.  On  the  Creation  of  the  World  ;  2.  The  Alle- 
gories of  the  Law,  three  books,  a  hexaemeron  ;  3.  The  Cher- 
ubim and  Flaming  Sword ;  4.  The  Sacrifices  of  Cain  and 
Abel ;  5.  On  the  Principle  that  "  The  worse  is  made  to 
serve  the  better;"  6.  Of  the  Posterity  of  Cain;  7.  Of  the 
Giants;  8.  On  the  Immutability  of  God;  9.  On  Agricul- 
ture; 10.  The  Plantation  of  Noah;  11.  On  Drunkenness; 
12.  On  the  words,  "  And  Noah  awoke  ;"  13.  The  Confusion 
of  Tongues  ;  14.  The  Migration  of  Abraham ;  15.  Of  him 
wdio  shall  inherit  Divine  Things ;  16.  On  Assemblies  for 
Learning;  17.  On  the  Fugitives;  18.  On  the  Change  of 
Names ;  19.  On  Dreams,  two  books  ;  20.  On  the  Life  of  a 
Political  Man,  or  on  Joseph;  21.  The  Life  of  Moses;  22. 
On  the  Decalogue ;  23.  Circumcision ;  24.  On  Monarchy, 
two  book ;  25.  On  the  Rewards  of  the  Priesthood ;  26. 
On  Animals  Fit  for  Sacrifices  ;  27.  On  Sacrifices ;  28.  On 
Particular  Laws;  29.  On  the  Week;  30.  The  Sixth  and 
Seventh  Commandments ;  31.  The  Eighth,  Ninth  and 
Tenth ;  32.  On  Justice ;  33.  On  the  Election  and  Creation 
of  the  Prince;  34.  Fortitude;  35.  Humanitv ;  36.  Peni- 
tence ;  37.  Rewards  and  Punishments ;  38.  JExecrations ; 
39.  Nobility;  40.  Efforts  after  Virtue  and  Liberty;  41.  The 
Contemplative  Life  (the  Essenes) ;  42.  The  Incorru]>tibility 
of  the  World ;  to  which  must  be  added,  43.  A  ^^'riting 
against  Flaccus  ;  44.  An  Account  of  his  Embassy  to  Rome  ; 
45.  On  the  World ;  and  several  fragments.  These  works 
have  been  printed,  Paris,  1552,  and  again,  1640,  Geneva, 
1613,  London  (Dr.  Mangev),  1742,  in  two  vols.  Leipzig 
(Richter),  1828-1830,  in  eight  vols,  and  lastly  by  Tauclmitz, 
1851,  etc.  The  English  translation,  in  four  volumes,  is  in 
Bohn's  Ecclesiastical  Library.  Fragments  of  German  trans- 
lations exist ;  a  publication  of  the  whole  is  now  in  process 
in  Vienna,  viz.,  translated  by  Dr.  Friedlander.     Writers  on 


(8)     Der  juedische  Alexandrismus  erne  Erfindung  christlicher  Lehrer, 
«tc.,  by  Dr.  Kirschbaum,  Leipzig,  1841. 


382  THE    IMIKUITANCK. 

Philo  are  Dahl,  Biyant,  Gfroerer,  Creuzer,  Grossman,  Wolff, 
Ritter,  Beer,  Daeline,  Bernhard  Ritter  (9),  and  three  hun- 
dred vears  ago,  Azariah  De  Rossi,  or  Mln  Ha' adomim  (10). 
The  works  of  Philo  may  be  divided  into  tlie  Philosophical, 
Historical  and  Exegetical,  the  latter  of  which  are  most 
numerous,  and  form,  in  their  connection,  a  i^hilosophical- 
liomiletic  commentary  to  the  Law  of  Moses. 

19.      The  Hermexeutics  of  Philo. 

In  expounding  the  laws,  Philo's  hermeneutics  differed 
not  from  that  of  the  Palestinean  sages,  although  he  often 
differs  from  them  in  his  conclusions  [halachah),  because 
he  followed  chiefly  the  text  of  the  Septuagint,  the  practice 
of  the  law  in  Alexandria,  which  differed  from  that  of  Pales- 
tine, and  in  many  cases  he  gives  his  own  independent  opin- 
ion, as  did  also  -josephus.  In  other  cases,  the  Palestinean 
halachah  may  not  have  been  fixed  when  he  wrote.  In  his 
ethical  and  philosophical  expositions  of  Scriptures  he,  like 
many  others,  adopted  the  allegoric  method  where  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  harmonize  Scriptures  and  philosophy, 
and,  like  Aristobul,  he  adopted  the  hermeneutic  rules  of 
the  Stoics  and  of  the  Agada  sages  of  Palestine  (11).  Nei- 
ther the  method  nor  the  rules  of  interpretation  were  new. 
Yet  the  material  produced  by  this  apparatus  was  new  in 
ethical  depth  and  in  harmonization  of  the  intellectual 
treasures  of  Greece  and  Palestine.  His  Agada  is  the  same 
as  the  Palestinean,  only  that  it  proved  to  the  enlightened 
Gentiles  how  all  that  is  good  and  true  in  Grecian  wisdom 
is  also  contained  in  the  great  text-book  of  Monotheism, 
only  that  the  latter  also  contained  the  wisdom  of  wisdoms, 
the  theology  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  of  which  the 
philosophers  and  poets  had  only  a  faint  knowledge. 

20.     The  Theology  of  Philo. 

In  order  to  understand  Philo  (or  also  Josephus)  correctly, 
it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  spoke  and  Avrote 
not  for  Plebrews  ;  he  did  so  for  Judaizing  Gentiles  who  knew 
and  appreciated  the  Bible.     Therefore,  he  made  use  of  the 


(9)  Philo  unci  die  Halacha,   etc.,   which  enlarges  on  the  subject 
treated  on  originally  by 

(10)  Me'o7-  Enayim,  by  Azariah,  written  (Hebrew)  in  Italy,  1571, 
a  book  of  various  sections  and  subjects. 

(11)  See  Carl  Siegfried's  Philo  von  Alexandrien  als  Ausleger  des  alien 
Testaments. 


THE    INHERITANCE.  383 

Septuagint  and  not  of  the  Hebrew  text.  In  that  form  the 
Bible  was  known  to  the  Gentiles.  Therefore,  in  his  the- 
ology also,  Philo  accommodated  himself  to  the  philosophical 
theories  and  terms  to  which  his  hearers  and  readers  were 
used.  While  he  consistently  teaches  one  incomprehensible 
God,  who  is  above  all  human  descriptions  and  conceptions, 
Yehovah,  he  called  God  in  so  far  as  he  is  manifested  in  the 
material  universe  and  has  become  Elohim,  the  Logos,  as 
did  Plato  and  Zoroaster  (by  another  word),  the  first  born 
son  of  God ;  and  in  so  far  as  God  is  manifested  in  human 
history  as  Adonai,  he  hypostasized  him  as  eternal  Wihdom, 
Goodness,  Love,  Mercy,  etc.  So  he  did  with  all  attributes 
and  manifestations  of  Deity,  to  bring  the  ideas  under  Greek 
terms  and  to  shape  them  for  the  Greek  conception,  without 
thinking  for  a  n:ioment  on  a  division  of  the  substance. 
Basing  upon  the  loftiest  conception  of  Deity,  he  expounded 
Scriptures  by  this  fundamental  truth,  and  developed  there- 
from the  most  sublime  views  about  Providence,  immortality 
of  the  soul  and  future  reward,  the  final  union  of  mankind, 
the  government  of  man  by  the  principle  of  justice,  etc.,  the 
entire  system  of  religion  and  ethics,  which  that  one  funda- 
mental principle  includes.  Posterity  misunderstood  his 
hypostases,  and  took  poetic-philosophical  terms  for  es- 
sences ;  still  none  could  dim  the  brilliancy  of  his  ethics  and 
profoundness  of  his  love  for  man. 

21.     The  Poets. 

Egypt,  Asia  Minor  and  other  Grecian  countries  pro- 
duced a  number  of  poets  who  were  either  Hebrews  or  Juda- 
izing  Greeks.  We  add  to  this  class  after  Aristobul,  the 
writers  of  several  Sibylline  poems  (12) ;  Ezekielos,  the 
dramatic  poet,  of  whose  drama,  "  The  Exode,"  a  fragment 
is  extant  (13);  Philo,  the  Elder,  an  epic  poet  (14):  Theo- 
dotus,  who  wrote  the  history  of  Jacob  (Eusebius)  ;  Phok}-- 
lides,  a  parapatetic  reasoner  and  the  author  of  Judaizing 
gnomical  poems  (15) ;  and  a  number  of  others,  who  Avrote 
in  the  Eastern  Grecian  dialect,  with  the  intention  to  glorify 
the  intellectual  heroes,  history,  law  and  religion  of  Israel, 
ill  all  popular  forms  of  Grecian  poetry.  Whoever  wishes  to 
understand  the  origin  of  Christianity  must  take  into  care- 
ful consideration  those  Greco-Hebrew  writers,  and  the  dis- 


(12)  See  Sibylline  Books,  published  Amsterdam,  1689,  and  later  in 
Copenhagen,  1821-1822. 

(13)  See  Franz  DeJiizsch^s  Zur  Gexchi.cht''<Jer  jue'lis^cJien  Poesie,  p.  211. 

(14)  Ludivig  Philipp^on' s  Ezechid  und  Philo,  Berlin,  1830. 

(15)  Prof.  Birnay's  Ueber  das  Phokylides  Gedicht. 


'884  THE    INHERITANCE. 

pcrsion  of  Hebrews  over  Africa  and  Europe  from  and  after 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  especially  after  Pompey's  con- 
quests in  the  East. 

22.      The  Liturgy. 

The  lituroy  of  the  temple  carried  into  tlio  synagogues  re- 
mained unchanged,  as  introduced  by  the  Great  tSynod,  and 
has  remained  the  groundwork  of  the  Hebrew  prayer-book 
to  this  day.  Its  main  elements  Avere  the  Shema  (Deut.  vi. 
4-9 ;  xi.  13-21;  to  which  was  added  Numbers  xv.  37-41); 
the  Berachoth  "  benedictions,"  two  before  and  one  after 
the  Shema,  which  were  much  shorter  than  those  in  the 
-common  prayer-book  (16),  and  the  seven  benedictions  of 
the  Tephilah^  "  daily  prayer,"  changed  afterward  to  eigh- 
teen and  nineteen,  the  fourth  of  which  commenced  pin  nns, 
"  Thou  bestowest  knowledge  upon  man,"  etc.,  which  was 
replaced  on  Sabbath  and  holidays  by  nvn  nt^ip,  "  the  sanc- 
tification  of  the  day  ;"  the  reading  of  the  Law  and  the  bene- 
dictions before  and'  after;  the  reading  of  Prophets  and  the 
sermon  connected  therewith,  closed  with  the  most  ancient 
benediction,  the  Kaddisii,  from  which  was  made  the  Chris- 
tian prayer  "■  Our  Father,  who  art  in  Heaven,"  etc.,  ^y^Vi 
D'DC^nC',  which  form  is  also  preserved  in  the  Talmud,  and 
has  been  changed  into  ^yzh^  IVnx,  "  Our  Father,  our  King," 
etc.  The  additional  benediction  for  Saljbaths,  holidays, 
new  moons.  New  Year  and  Day  of  Atonement,  have  been 
preserved  in  later  compositions.  The  Berachah,  in  the 
briefest  form,  to  precede  and  succeed  every  enjoyment  in 
life,  contains  the  Hebrew's  articles  of  faith  in  so  concise  a 
form  that  every  one  was  bound  to  know  them  well.  It  was 
impressed  upon  all  as  a  safeguard  against  paganism,  vice 
and  corruption.  Its  main  words,  like  those  of  all  an- 
cient prayers,  are  taken  from  the  Bible,  and  its  object  was 
to  remind  the  Hebrew,  at  all  times  and  places,  that  his 
God  is  Avith  him,  and  Israel's  law  and  covenant  direct  him. 

The  Psalms,  Shir,  were  the  next  element  of  the  liturgy 
in  temple  and  synagogue,  as  they  are  now.  They  were  the 
texts  for  tlie  grand  choruses  of  the  Levites,  for  pilgrims  and 
domestic  devotion.  Besides  tlie  Canonical  Psalms,  there 
were  the  exotic  Psalms  of  David,  of  which  Atapasius 
counts  over  3,000,  and  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  (17).     INIost 


(IG)  Dr.  Zunz,  Gottesdienstliclie  Vortraege  der  Juden,  Berlin,  1832,  p. 
36:X 

(17)  Dcr  Psaller  S'domo's  von  Ehiard  Eplir.  Geiger;  German  by 
J.  Wellhausen,  in  Pharis.  and  Saclduc,  p.  Iu8. 


THE    INHERITANCE.  385 

of  them  are  products  of  the  Grecian  synagogue ;  perhaps 
of  the  great  Basilika  of  Alexandria,  which  was  the  largest 
in  the  world.  Among  the  Psalms  of  Solomon,  some  are  in 
the  Musivstyle,  and  appear  to  be  of  Palestinean  origin. 
Christian  phrases  have  been  interpolated  in  numerous  cases. 
The  responses  in  the  temple  were  almost  exclusively  from 
the  Psalms,  except  the  Ijn  dW^  ini3^0  Tina  De; -]  1-13,  which 
was  a  Berachah,  and  most  likely  read,  ''  Praised  be  God 
and  the  glory  of  His  kingdom,  for  ever  and  aye,"  which  the 
people  said  in  the  temple  as  often  as  the  tetragrammaton 
was  pronounced. 

The  Confession,  Vidui,  also  of  Biblical  origin,  was  an- 
other element  of  public  worship.  Three  confessions  of  the 
highpriest  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  are  preserved  in  the 
Talmud  (18),  and  have  partly  been  adopted  in  the  com- 
mon liturgy. 

The  Prayer,  Tephillah,  petition  or  supplication,  was  an 
element  of  the  public  service ;  but  it  was  not  written,  as  it 
was  held  that  prayer  must  be  spontaneous  (19).  Only  in 
exceptional  cases  were  such  prayers  written.  Of  these  are 
preserved,  the  prayer  of  the  highpriest  on  the  Day  of 
Atonement  (Yerushalmi) ;  the  prayers  for  public  fasts 
(MisHNAH,  Ta'anith  II.);  also  the  praj'er  of  Ishmael  Fabi 
[Berachoth  7  a). 

The  Reading  of  the  Law  was  another  element  of  public 
service,  the  corresponding  sections  of  each  holiday  at  the 
holiday  (Mishnah,  Yoma  vii) ;  one  of  the  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  sections  in  which  the  Pentateuch  was 
divided  was  read  every  Sabbath  morning  and  evening,  Mon- 
day and  Thursday  (at  least  ten  verses  thereof),  except  on 
four  Sabbaths  (nVKHQ  y3"l^■')J  between  the  Sabbath  next  to 
the  month  of  Adar  and  that  before  Passover,  when  other 
sections  were  read  (Meguillah  iii.  4).  On  Hanukah., 
Purim^  new  moon,  public  fasts,  and  the  meetings  of  the 
Commoners,  sections  of  the  Pentateuch  were  read.  Men 
were  called  to  read ;  the  first  opened  with  the  benediction, 
and  the  last  reader  closed  with  another  benediction.  The 
entire  groundwork  of  modern  Jewish  worship  was  estab- 
lished during  the  Second  Commonwealth. 


(18)  Yerusfialmi,  Foma  iii.  7 ;  iv.  2;  Mishnah,  do.,  do.  This 
book  of  the  Mishnah,  treating  on  the  temple  service  for  the  Day  of 
Atonement,  it  is  reported  ( Voma  14  b),  was  written  by  Simon,  the 
lord  of  Mizpah,  hence  before  the  destruction  of  the  Temple. 

(19)  Mishnah  Berachoth  iv.  4. 


386  the  inheritance. 

23.      Other  Literature. 

The  poets  were  silent;  none  did  lament  over  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  destruction  of  the  temple.  The  age  was 
too  rational  and  tragic  for  poetry.  The  Mashal,  parable, 
fable,  personification,  or  also  hyperbole,  was  the  most  com- 
mon form  of  poetry,  many  of  which  are  preserved  in  the 
Talmuis  and  Gospels.  The  moral  sentences,  the  song  of 
the  maidens  in  the  vineyards  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  Ab 
and  the  Day  of  Atonement,  and  some  more  lyrical  frag- 
ments are  extant  (20).  Of  the  Christian  literature,  besides 
some  epistles,  it  is  the  Revelation  of  John,  which  was  writ- 
ten during  the  last  war,  and  the  Book  of  Henoch  (21), 
which,  about  the  same  time,  was  written  in  Egypt.  The 
formjr  was  written  by  an  outspoken  Jew-Christian,  lament- 
ing over  the  fate  of  Jerusalem  and  prophesying  the  destruc- 
tion of  Rome  ;  while  the  latter  was  written  by  an  Egyptian 
Messiahnist,  with  all  the  pessimism  which  the  catastrophe 
of  Jerusalem  produced,  and  many  of  the  mysterious  super- 
stitions which  coursed  among  a  certain  class  of  mystics, 
and  found  their  way  into  various  rabbinical  works,  espe- 
cially during  the  Middle  Ages. 


And  so  my  task  is  done.  I  have  written  this  history 
with  the  proud  feeling  that  man  is  better  than  his  history, 
in  which  the  onward  march  of  enlightenment  and  humani- 
zation  is  so  often  interrupted  by  barbarous  multitudes. 
The  triumph  of  progress  can  not  be  fully  achieved  before 
the  civilization  of  the  entire  human  family  has  become  a 
fact.  Had  the  Hebrews  not  been  disturbed  in  their  pro- 
gress a  thousand  and  more  years  ago,  they  would  have  solved 
all  the  great  problems  of  civilization  which  are  being 
solved  now  under  all  the  difficulties  imposed  by  the  spirit 
of  the  Middle  Ages.     The  world  is  not  yet  redeemed. 

(20)  Delitzsch,  p.  193. 

(21)  7)a.s  Buck  Bnioch,hy  Dr.  A.  Dillmann,  Leipzig,  185S ;  also 
Ad.  Jelliuek,  Beth  JIamidrash,  II.,  p.  xxx. 


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